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

原地油砂是艾伯塔省北部针叶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。虽然现场干扰的总足迹相对较小(约占景观的5%-15%)，但其影响可能会因碎片化(边缘效应)和连通性变化而加剧。事实上，现场干扰造成的碎裂很大程度上是由于管道、道路和地震线路等线性干扰造成的。这些特征改变了有机体的运动，从而改变了生物的相互作用。最近的研究表明，受到联邦威胁的林地驯鹿通过狼-鹿-驯鹿的动态变化对这些变化很敏感。然而，关于对其他非脊椎动物种类的反应，以及这些反应如何作为足迹量、碎片量和自干扰以来的时间(滞后效应)的函数变化，或者它们之间的潜在相互作用，人们知之甚少。在这个项目中，我们将评估原地油砂对一套生物多样性指标和生境的影响，以评估影响的规模和潜在的滞后影响，并随后制定和测试潜在的缓解和恢复战略，包括保护补偿。这项研究的结果将为生物多样性管理提供关于就地开发的信息，并帮助指导哪里的恢复战略将是最具成本效益和有利于生物多样性保护的。

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.