Ecology of wood bison and their response to natural and anthropogenic disturbances in the oil sands region of northeast Alberta

艾伯塔省东北部油砂地区木野牛的生态及其对自然和人为干扰的响应

• 批准号: 505291-2016
• 负责人: Nielsen, Scott
• 金额: $ 12.8万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=660944
• 关键词: Ecology; wood; bison; their; response

Alberta's oil sands reserves are an important resource for Canada and of strategic international value. However, numerous environmental concerns have been raised about Alberta's oil sands, including pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and threats to biodiversity and wildlife. This includes nationally threatened species such as wood bison. Although existing oil sands developments do not overlap with extant wild populations of wood bison, proposed oil sands developments south of Wood Buffalo National Park overlap with parts of a small (~200 animals) herd of wood bison near Ronald Lake. More detailed information of how the herd responds to oil sands exploration and development would inform mitigation and reclamation plans thus minimizing negative effects to the herd.****The Ronald Lake herd overlaps with the oil sands leases of our 2 industrial partners, Teck Resources Limited and Shell Canada Limited. Together with our industrial partners and other members of the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Technical Team (provincial and federal governments and Aboriginal or Indigenous communities), we have identified several key knowledge gaps for the herd that deal with its long-term management and sustainability, as well as specific mitigation and reclamation practices. We will address these needs through a 4-year NSERC-CRD study of the Ronald Lake wood bison herd that focus on better understanding the herd's habitat and space use patterns, behavioural responses to human-caused and natural disturbances, and population dynamics in relation to habitat supply and predation. Scientific findings from this work will be used to help guide management of the herd and more broadly to fill knowledge gaps identified by the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Technical Team.**

艾伯塔省的油砂储量是加拿大的重要资源，具有国际战略价值。然而，人们对艾伯塔省的油砂提出了许多环境问题，包括污染、栖息地丧失和破碎化，以及对生物多样性和野生动物的威胁。这包括国家濒危物种，例如野牛。尽管现有的油砂开发项目与现有野生美洲野牛种群并不重叠，但伍德布法罗国家公园以南拟议的油砂开发项目与罗纳德湖附近一小群（约 200 只）美洲野牛的部分区域重叠。有关牛群如何应对油砂勘探和开发的更详细信息将为缓解和复垦计划提供信息，从而最大限度地减少对牛群的负面影响。****罗纳德湖牛群与我们的 2 个工业合作伙伴泰克资源有限公司和壳牌加拿大有限公司的油砂租赁重叠。我们与我们的工业合作伙伴和罗纳德湖野牛群技术团队的其他成员（省和联邦政府以及原住民或原住民社区）一起，确定了牛群的几个关键知识差距，涉及其长期管理和可持续性，以及具体的缓解和复垦实践。我们将通过对罗纳德湖林野牛群进行为期 4 年的 NSERC-CRD 研究来满足这些需求，该研究重点是更好地了解牛群的栖息地和空间使用模式、对人为和自然干扰的行为反应以及与栖息地供应和捕食相关的种群动态。这项工作的科学发现将用于帮助指导牛群管理，并更广泛地填补罗纳德湖野牛牛群技术团队发现的知识空白。 **