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

原地油砂是阿尔伯塔北部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。虽然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化（边缘效应）和连通性变化而加剧。事实上，许多来自原位扰动的破碎是由于线性扰动，如管道，道路和地震线。这些特征改变了生物体的运动，从而改变了生物的相互作用。最近的研究表明，联邦威胁林地驯鹿是敏感的，这些变化通过鹿驯鹿动态。然而，鲜为人知的是其他非脊椎动物类群的反应，以及这些反应如何作为一个功能的足迹量，碎片量，和时间，因为干扰（滞后效应），或潜在的相互作用。在本项目中，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。这项研究的结果将告知生物多样性管理的原地发展，并帮助指导恢复战略将是最具成本效益和有利于生物多样性的保护。

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.