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

艾伯塔省油砂资源的开发对加拿大具有重要的经济意义，但需要谨慎地管理对宝贵的北方生态系统的累积影响。成功的管理反过来又取决于对生物多样性的可靠监测。能源行业花费了相当多的时间和金钱来监测油砂的生物多样性，但由于缺乏标准化的方法和协调的实施，这项投资的回报有限。区域监测项目，如艾伯塔省生物多样性监测研究所，旨在跟踪大片地区的长期生物多样性趋势，但其结果仅提供了解决个别能源开发需求的部分信息。我们建议开展研究，以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影响联系起来。我们将使用自动调查技术测试新的采样协议，以改进对稀有和常见物种的标准化监测。这些议定书将在旨在处理短期、局部影响和长期累积变化的监测框架内应用。我们还将开发可靠的动植物对景观变化的响应模型，为影响评估和管理规划提供信息，并测试新的统计方法，以获得更好的野生动物种群数量信息。该项目将提供新的工具，用于改善加拿大油砂及其他地区的环境监测和管理。这些改进将促进在保护环境的同时实现经济目标的努力，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.