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

艾伯塔省的油砂储量是加拿大的重要资源，具有战略国际价值。然而，人们对艾伯塔省的油砂提出了许多环境问题，包括污染、栖息地丧失和碎片化，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，如林野牛。尽管现有的油砂开发项目与现有的野生林野牛种群没有重叠，但伍德布法罗国家公园南部拟议的油砂开发项目与罗纳德湖附近一小群(约200只动物)林野野牛的部分项目重叠。关于牛群对油砂勘探和开发的反应的更详细的信息将为缓解和复垦计划提供信息，从而将对牛群的负面影响降至最低。*罗纳德湖牛群与我们的两个行业合作伙伴Teck Resources Limited和壳牌加拿大有限公司的油砂租约重叠。与我们的行业合作伙伴和罗纳德湖野牛群技术团队的其他成员(省和联邦政府以及土著或土著社区)一起，我们确定了该牛群在长期管理和可持续性以及具体的缓解和开垦实践方面的几个关键知识差距。我们将通过NSERC-CRD对罗纳德湖林野牛群进行的为期4年的研究来满足这些需求，该研究的重点是更好地了解该牛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被用来帮助指导牛群的管理，并更广泛地填补罗纳德湖野牛群技术团队确定的知识空白。

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.**