Improving methodologies for monitoring terrestrial biodiversity and supporting environmental management in Alberta's Oil Sands region

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Development of Alberta's Oil Sands resources is of economic importance to Canada but necessitates prudent management of the cumulative impacts valuable boreal ecosystems. Successful management in turn depends on reliable monitoring of biodiversity. The energy industry expends considerable time and money monitoring biodiversity in the Oil Sands, but the return on this investment has been limited by a lack of standardized methodologies and coordinated implementation. Regional monitoring programs, such as the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, are designed to track long-term biodiversity trends over large areas, but their results provide only partial information for addressing the needs of individual energy developments. We propose to conduct research designed to effectively link biodiversity monitoring from the scale of local energy projects to broader cumulative effects in the Oil Sands region. We will test new sampling protocols using automated survey technologies to improve standardized monitoring of both rare and common species. These protocols will be applied within a monitoring framework designed to address both shorter-term, localized impacts and longer-term cumulative changes. We will also develop dependable models of animal and plant responses to landscape change to inform impact assessment and management planning, and we will test novel statistical approaches for obtaining better information on wildlife population abundances. This project will provide new tools for use in improving environmental monitoring and management in Canada's Oil Sands and beyond. Such improvements will facilitate efforts to meet economic objectives while safeguarding the environment, thereby benefitting industry and the Canadian public.