Characterizations of anthropogenic disturbance patterns in the mixedwood boreal forest of Alberta, Canada

Pickell, Paul D.; Andison, David; Coops, Nicholas C.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2013.04.031

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The locations of the sample areas were selected to represent the range of anthropogenic disturbances within the FMAs. For example, the sample areas in the Al-Pac FMA were initially selected for a range of forest harvesting practices and intensity of energy sector disturbance to be representative of the largest FMA in Alberta (Pickell et al 2013). The samples in the Foothills were also selected to represent various forestry practices, natural gas production, and coal mining across two of the oldest FMAs in Alberta.…”

Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…NEPTUNE is composed of a series of algorithms that aggregate mapped features identified in a GIS environment into spatially and temporally discrete disturbance events using buffering logic (Andison and McCleary 2014;Pickell et al 2013;Andison 2012). Mapped patches comprising each disturbance event can be resolved into four levels of mortality based on percent crown removal: fully disturbed (≥95%), partially disturbed island remnant (<95%), intact island remnant (0%), and intact matrix remnant (0%).…”

Section: Characterizing Disturbance Patterns Relative To the Hrvmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since then, several studies have examined the efficacy of such forestry-based initiatives with results that indicate scale or regional dependence. At the landscape scale, Pickell et al (2013) found that HRV-based harvest designs were significantly more similar to wildfire than the traditional multi pass harvesting system in northern Alberta. Andison and Marshall (1999) found that HRV-based guidelines for patch size and relative frequency of seral stages for a landscape in British Columbia created patterns that were marginally closer to HRV targets than traditional harvesting practices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anthropogenic disturbance often generates forest patterns that have no historical analogue in the boreal system (Schneider et al 2003;Pickell et al 2013). Industrial access corridors such as roads and cut lines are characteristically distinct from other disturbances such as forest harvesting in that they are generally linear, which both promotes and inhibits the movement and dispersal of organisms (Lesmerises et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The spatial patterns of anthropogenic disturbance in the western Canadian boreal forest following oil and gas development

et al. 2015

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Resource development can have significant consequences for the distribution of vegetation cover and for species persistence. Modelling changes to anthropogenic disturbance regimes over time can provide profound insights into the mechanisms that drive land cover change. We analyzed the spatial patterns of anthropogenic disturbance before and after a period of significant oil and gas extraction in two boreal forest subregions in Alberta, Canada. A spatially explicit model was used to map levels of anthropogenic forest crown mortality across 700 000 ha of managed forest over a 60-year period. The anthropogenic disturbance regime varied both spatially and temporally and was outside the historical range of variability characterized by regional fire regimes. Levels of live forest crown within anthropogenic disturbances declined and edge density increased following oil and gas development, whereas patch size varied regionally. In some places, anthropogenic disturbance generated profoundly novel landscapes with spatial patterns that had no historical analogue in the boreal system. The results illustrate that a shift in one sector of the economy can have dramatic outcomes on landscape structure. The results also suggest that any efforts to better align cumulative anthropogenic disturbance patterns with the historic baseline will almost certainly require a concerted and collaborative effort from all of the major stakeholders.Résumé : L'exploitation des ressources peut avoir d'importantes conséquences sur la répartition du couvert végétal et la persistance des espèces. La modélisation des changements temporels dus aux régimes de perturbation anthropique peut déboucher sur une meilleure connaissance des mécanismes qui déterminent les modifications du couvert végétal. Nous avons analysé la configuration spatiale des perturbations anthropiques avant et après une période durant laquelle une quantité importante de pétrole et de gaz a été extraite dans deux forêts boréales en Alberta, au Canada. Un modèle spatialement explicite a été utilisé pour cartographier le niveau de mortalité d'origine anthropique dans le couvert forestier sur un territoire de forêt aménagée de 700 000 ha pendant une période de 60 ans. Le régime de perturbation anthropique a varié dans le temps et l'espace et excédait les limites historiques de variabilité caractérisées par des régimes de feu régionaux. Les niveaux de couvert forestier vivant dans les zones de perturbation anthropique ont diminué et la densité de lisière a augmenté à la suite de l'exploitation du pétrole et du gaz tandis que la dimension des parcelles de forêt variait selon la région. À certains endroits, les perturbations anthropiques ont engendré des paysages totalement nouveaux dont la configuration spatiale n'avait aucun équivalent dans l'histoire du système boréal. Les résultats illustrent le fait qu'un changement dans un secteur de l'économie peut avoir des effets dramatiques sur la structure du paysage. Les résultats indiquent aussi que toute tentative visant faire en sorte que la c...

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Section: Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Characterizing Disturbance Patterns Relative To the Hrvmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The spatial patterns of anthropogenic disturbance in the western Canadian boreal forest following oil and gas development

et al. 2015

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“…Exploration of oil and natural gas deposits requires seismic activities in the area resulting in increasing landscape disturbances such as forest cuts, seismic lines, well sites, and core holes. Landscape disturbances have a significant impact on wildlife and its habitat loss (Pickell, Andison, and Coops 2013;Yukon Energy, Mines, and Resources 2006). Reliable and up-to-date disturbance maps showing all scales of disturbance are essential for wildlife habitat monitoring, forest planning, management, and modelling activities (He et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Well site extraction from Landsat-5 TM imagery using an object- and pixel-based image analysis method

Salehi

Chen

Jefferies

et al. 2014

International Journal of Remote Sensing

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Well sites, including both well pads and exploratory core holes, are small polygonal landscape disturbance features approximately one half to one hectare (0.5-1 ha) in area, resulting from oil and gas exploration activities. Automatic extraction and monitoring of such small features using remote-sensing technology at regional scales has always been desirable for wildlife habitat monitoring and environmental planning and modelling. Due to the vast disturbances of well sites in a province like Alberta, Canada, high-resolution imagery is not practical for well site extraction. For operational purposes, mid-resolution and cost-effective satellite imagery such as Landsat is the choice. However, automatic well site extraction using midresolution satellite imagery is a challenging task. Wells are typically less than three pixels in width and length in a Landsat multispectral image. Furthermore, the spectral contrast between the well site pixels and the surrounding areas is low due to vegetation regrowth and the spectral complexity of the surrounding environment. This article presents a novel methodology for automatic extraction of well sites from Landsat-5 TM imagery. The method combines both pixel-and objectbased image analyses and contains three major steps: geometric enhancement, segmentation, and well site extraction. The method was applied to Landsat-5 TM images acquired over Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. For accuracy assessment, four regions of interest were selected and the results of the proposed automatic method were evaluated against visual inspection of the Landsat-8 pan-sharpened image. The method results in a total average correctness, completeness, and quality measures of about 80, 96, and 77%, respectively over the four sites. In addition, the method is very fast as an entire Landsat scene is processed in less than 10 minutes. The method is an operational approach for automatic detection of well sites over the entire province and can dramatically reduce the labour cost of manual digitization for monitoring and updating well site maps.

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Integration of aerial surveys and resource selection analysis indicates human land use supports boreal deer expansion

Fuller

Frey

Fisher

2022

Ecological Applications

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Landscape change is a driver of global biodiversity loss. In the western Nearctic, petroleum exploration and extraction is a major contributor to landscape change, with concomitant effects on large mammal populations. One of those effects is the continued expansion of invasive white‐tailed deer populations into the boreal forest, with ramifications for the whole ecosystem. We explored deer resource selection within the oil sands region of the boreal forest using a novel application of aerial ungulate survey (AUS) data. Deer locations from AUS were “used” points and together with randomly allocated “available” points informed deer resource selection in relation to landscape variables in the boreal forest. We created a candidate set of generalized linear models representing competing hypotheses about the role of natural landscape features, forest harvesting, cultivation, roads, and petroleum features. We ranked these in an information‐theoretic framework. A combination of natural and anthropogenic landscape features best explained deer resource selection. Deer strongly selected seismic lines and other linear features associated with petroleum exploration and extraction, likely as movement corridors and resource subsidies. Forest harvesting and cultivation, important contributors to expansion in other parts of the white‐tailed deer range, were not as important here. Stemming deer expansion to conserve native ungulates and maintain key predator–prey processes will likely require landscape management to restore the widespread linear features crossing the vast oil sands region.

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Characterizations of anthropogenic disturbance patterns in the mixedwood boreal forest of Alberta, Canada

Cited by 28 publications

References 36 publications

The spatial patterns of anthropogenic disturbance in the western Canadian boreal forest following oil and gas development

The spatial patterns of anthropogenic disturbance in the western Canadian boreal forest following oil and gas development

Well site extraction from Landsat-5 TM imagery using an object- and pixel-based image analysis method

Integration of aerial surveys and resource selection analysis indicates human land use supports boreal deer expansion

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