Ecology of wood bison and their response to natural and anthropogenic disturbances in the oil sands region of northeast Alberta

阿尔伯塔省的油砂储量是加拿大的重要资源，具有国际战略价值。然而，阿尔伯塔省的油砂引发了许多环境问题，包括污染、栖息地丧失和破碎，以及对生物多样性和野生动物的威胁。这包括国家濒危物种，如木野牛。虽然现有的油砂开发项目与现存的野生木野牛种群没有重叠，但在木野牛国家公园以南的拟议油砂开发项目与罗纳德湖附近的一小群（约200头）木野牛重叠。有关油砂勘探和开发对油砂群的影响的更详细信息，将为缓解和填海计划提供信息，从而最大限度地减少对油砂群的负面影响。罗纳德湖油田与我们的两个工业合作伙伴泰克资源有限公司和壳牌加拿大有限公司的油砂租约重叠。与我们的工业合作伙伴和罗纳德湖野牛群技术团队的其他成员（省级和联邦政府以及土著或土著社区）一起，我们已经确定了牧群的几个关键知识空白，涉及其长期管理和可持续性，以及具体的缓解和开垦做法。我们将通过一项为期4年的NSERC-CRD对罗纳德湖木野牛群的研究来解决这些需求，该研究的重点是更好地了解鹿群的栖息地和空间使用模式，对人为和自然干扰的行为反应，以及与栖息地供应和捕食有关的种群动态。这项工作的科学发现将用于帮助指导牛群的管理，并更广泛地填补罗纳德湖野牛技术小组确定的知识空白。

Alberta's oil sands reserves are an important resource for Canada and of strategic international value. However, numerous environmental concerns have been raised about Alberta's oil sands, including pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, and threats to biodiversity and wildlife. This includes nationally threatened species such as wood bison. Although existing oil sands developments do not overlap with extant wild populations of wood bison, proposed oil sands developments south of Wood Buffalo National Park overlap with parts of a small (~200 animals) herd of wood bison near Ronald Lake. More detailed information of how the herd responds to oil sands exploration and development would inform mitigation and reclamation plans thus minimizing negative effects to the herd.The Ronald Lake herd overlaps with the oil sands leases of our 2 industrial partners, Teck Resources Limited and Shell Canada Limited. Together with our industrial partners and other members of the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Technical Team (provincial and federal governments and Aboriginal or Indigenous communities), we have identified several key knowledge gaps for the herd that deal with its long-term management and sustainability, as well as specific mitigation and reclamation practices. We will address these needs through a 4-year NSERC-CRD study of the Ronald Lake wood bison herd that focus on better understanding the herd's habitat and space use patterns, behavioural responses to human-caused and natural disturbances, and population dynamics in relation to habitat supply and predation. Scientific findings from this work will be used to help guide management of the herd and more broadly to fill knowledge gaps identified by the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Technical Team.