Restoration of a peatland impacted by a mineral road: the JACOS site

在加拿大，自然资源的开采遍及整个北方地区，基础设施不可避免地要建在泥炭地。在阿尔伯塔，许多石油开采的井场位于泥炭地上，每一个井场都需要道路进行建设和开采。道路（矿物线性结构）的引入以不同的方式干扰泥炭地生态系统：泥炭表面的损失，碳积累功能的破坏，泥炭压实降低水力传导性，限制水文连通性并改变道路两侧之间的地下水位。道路在泥炭地的筑坝效应及其对理化性质的影响也导致植被组成和结构的变化。本项目旨在应用生态恢复技术在一个贫穷的沼泽位于西南部的麦克默里堡，阿尔伯塔400米的矿路干扰的一段，并评估其效率，恢复泥炭地的特点。恢复的重点将是重建泥炭地的地下水流，并在前道路顶部重建合适的表面基质，以利于建立泥炭积累植物群，同时限制地下矿物填料的营养污染。还将测试两种重新植被技术：一种是在类似于周围泥炭地的酸性有机基质上种植泥炭藓属贫沼泽群落，另一种是利用已经存在的道路矿物质土壤模拟泥炭地启动过程，促进建立丰富的沼泽植被。该项目将为从业者带来突破性的解决方案，因为在阿尔伯塔没有已知的成功的泥炭地恢复受矿物线性特征影响的案例。该项目将填补恢复和复垦科学以及泥炭地管理方面的关键空白。从这些试验中开发的最佳管理实践和技术知识将使加拿大各地的广泛受众受益，泥炭地生态系统通常占主导地位。

In Canada, natural resource extraction is extensive across the boreal zone and infrastructures are inevitably built in peatlands. In Alberta, many of the well-sites for oil extraction are located on peatlands and each one need access roads for their construction and exploitation. The introduction of a road (a mineral-linear structure) disturbs the peatland ecosystem in different ways: loss of peat surface, disruption of the carbon accumulation function, peat compaction reducing hydraulic conductivity, and limiting the hydrologic connectivity and changing the water table level between the two sides of the road. The damming effect of roads in peatlands and its impact on the physicochemical properties also lead to changes in the vegetation composition and structure. This restoration project aims at applying ecological restoration techniques on a section of a poor fen disturbed by a 400 m mineral road located southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta, and to assess their efficiency to restore peatland characteristics. The restoration will focus on re-establishing the subsurface water flow across the peatland and to recreating a suitable surface substrate atop the former road to favour the establishment of peat-accumulating plant assemblages while confining the nutrient contamination from the mineral fill below ground. Two revegetation techniques will also be tested: one that will favour Sphagnum poor fen communities on an acidic organic substrate similar to the surrounding peatland and a second that will make use of the road mineral soil already in place to simulate peatland initiation processes and promote the establishment of rich fen vegetation. This project will bring breakthrough solutions to practitioners, since there are no known cases of successful peatland restoration impacted by mineral linear features in Alberta. The project will fill critical gaps in restoration and reclamation science and peatland management. Best management practices and technical knowledge developed from these trials will benefit a broad audience across Canada where peatland ecosystems often dominate.