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

阿尔伯塔油砂资源的开发对加拿大具有重要的经济意义，但需要谨慎管理累积影响宝贵的北方生态系统。成功的管理反过来又取决于对生物多样性的可靠监测。能源行业花费了大量的时间和金钱来监测油砂中的生物多样性，但由于缺乏标准化的方法和协调的实施，这项投资的回报受到了限制。区域监测方案，如阿尔伯塔生物多样性监测研究所，旨在跟踪大面积的长期生物多样性趋势，但其结果只提供了满足个别能源发展需要的部分信息。我们建议开展旨在有效地将生物多样性监测从当地能源项目的规模与油砂地区更广泛的累积效应联系起来的研究。我们将使用自动化调查技术测试新的采样协议，以改善对稀有和常见物种的标准化监测。这些规程将在一个监测框架内适用，该框架旨在处理短期的局部影响和长期的累积变化。我们还将开发可靠的动物和植物对景观变化的反应模型，为影响评估和管理规划提供信息，我们将测试新的统计方法，以获得更好的野生动物种群丰度信息。该项目将提供新的工具，用于改善加拿大油砂和其他地区的环境监测和管理。这些改进将有助于努力实现经济目标，同时保护环境，从而使工业和加拿大公众受益。

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.