Habitat fragmentation from in situ oil sands: biodiversity responses and mitigation

原位油砂造成的栖息地破碎化：生物多样性应对和缓解

• 批准号: 498955-2016
• 负责人: Nielsen, Scott
• 金额: $ 22.91万
• 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: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=694813
• 关键词: Habitat; fragmentation; situ; oil; sands

In situ oil sands represent one of the fastest growing footprints in Alberta's boreal forest raising environmental concerns over its effects on biodiversity. Although the overall footprint of in situ disturbances is relatively small (~5-15% of landscape), their effects are likely compounded by fragmentation (edge effects) and changes in connectivity. Indeed, much of the fragmentation from in situ disturbances is due to linear disturbances such as pipelines, roads, and seismic lines. These features alter movements of organisms thereby changing biotic interactions. Recent research has demonstrated that the federally threatened woodland caribou is sensitive to these changes via wolf-deer-caribou dynamics. However, little is known about responses to other non-vertebrate taxa, as well as how these responses vary as a function of amount of footprint, amount of fragmentation, and time since disturbance (lag effects), or potentially their interaction. In this project we will assess the impacts of in situ oil sands for a suite of biodiversity indicators and habitats in order to assess the scale and potential lag effects of impacts and subsequently to develop and test potential mitigation and restoration strategies including conservation offsets. Results of this research will inform biodiversity management of in situ developments and help guide where restoration strategies would be most cost-effective and beneficial to biodiversity conservation.

原位油砂是艾伯塔省北方森林中增长最快的足迹之一，引起了人们对其对生物多样性影响的环境担忧。尽管原地扰动的总体足迹相对较小（约占景观的 5-15%），但其影响可能因破碎（边缘效应）和连通性变化而加剧。事实上，原位扰动造成的破碎大部分是由管道、道路和地震测线等线性扰动造成的。这些特征改变了生物体的运动，从而改变了生物相互作用。最近的研究表明，受到联邦政府威胁的林地驯鹿通过狼-鹿-驯鹿的动态对这些变化敏感。然而，人们对其他非脊椎动物类群的反应以及这些反应如何随着足迹量、碎片量和干扰后时间（滞后效应）或潜在的相互作用而变化的情况知之甚少。在该项目中，我们将评估原位油砂对一系列生物多样性指标和栖息地的影响，以评估影响的规模和潜在的滞后效应，并随后制定和测试潜在的缓解和恢复策略，包括保护补偿。这项研究的结果将为原地开发的生物多样性管理提供信息，并帮助指导恢复策略最具有成本效益且有利于生物多样性保护。