Impacts and prognosis of natural resource development on aquatic biodiversity in Canada’s boreal zone

Abstract

Conservation efforts to sustain water resources and aquatic biodiversity in boreal watersheds will require reliable information on the recent status of various indicator species and an improved understanding of the risks to aquatic biodiversity posed by resource development activities. We reviewed the recent state of knowledge on the responses of aquatic biodiversity to forest management, pulp and paper mill effluents, hydroelectric impoundments, mining of minerals and metals, oil sands extractions, and peat mining and offer a prognosis for aquatic biodiversity under each of these environmental stressors. Despite the prevalence of natural resource development in Canada’s largest forest ecosystem, there was a limited amount of published literature on the effects of many of the disturbance types on various indicators of aquatic biodiversity, making it difficult to produce a current and reliable status assessment. Across most of the boreal zone, there is a lack of coordinated, consistent data collection for many of the bioindicators and disturbance types discussed in this review. Forecasting the future state of aquatic biodiversity across the boreal zone is challenged by increasing natural resource development and its interactions with other stressors, especially climate change. The cumulative effects of multiple stressors coupled with resource development activities in boreal watersheds remain largely unknown. More importantly, the ecological thresholds for these cumulative effects (that is, the point at which aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity cannot recover to a desired state within a reasonable time frame) are also unknown and remain gaps in our knowledge. The recent literature identifies a number of risks to aquatic biodiversity at local (tens of square kilometres) to regional (hundreds of square kilometres) scales associated with natural resource development. There are indications that many of these risks can be minimized by “greener” technologies for resource development and reclamation, practical conservation planning and regulation, and increased stewardship in watershed management, although the effectiveness of many of these measures cannot yet be assessed from the published literature.

Assessing the ecological sustainability of a forest management system using the ISO Bowtie Risk Management Assessment Tool

“…The pressureseffects-impacts pathways were based on risks identified in the boreal synthesis reviews (e.g., Kreutzweiser et al 2013;Venier et al 2014;Webster et al 2015), published guides and reviews (e.g., Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources 2010, 2014a; Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry 2015; National Council for Air and Stream Improvement 2014).…”

“…These pressures may lead to the impacts of reduced surface water quality, changes to energy and nutrient cycling, reduced water clarity, and unwanted changes in microbial activity, and aquatic species abundance (Kreutzweiser et al 2013;Webster et al 2015).…”

“…A comprehensive review of the risks related to natural resource extraction activities and climate change to the boreal zone was completed and published in a series of synthesis papers (Kreutzweiser et al 2013;Kurz et al 2013;Lemprière et al 2013;Price et al 2013;Andrew et al 2014;Gauthier et al 2014;Langor et al 2014;Maynard et al 2014;Venier et al 2014;Webster et al 2015). The main conclusion of the synthesis papers was that cumulative effects of natural resource development under a changThe Forestry Chronicle Downloaded from pubs.cif-ifc.org by 54.191.190.102 on 05/10/18…”

Potential conflict between future development of natural resources and high-value wildlife habitats in boreal landscapes

“…Despite the ongoing threats to biodiversity from various resource developments, current status of ecosystem health in the boreal zone has not been assessed fully because long temporal and broad spatial biological and ecological datasets as well as coordinated research efforts are lacking (Kreutzweiser et al 2013). It is, therefore, difficult to determine thresholds of ecological and biological sustainability against cumulative effects and to forecast future conditions of ecosystems and biodiversity (Venier et al 2014).…”

“…It is, therefore, difficult to determine thresholds of ecological and biological sustainability against cumulative effects and to forecast future conditions of ecosystems and biodiversity (Venier et al 2014). The threat of climate change and efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses have encouraged development of green energy in the boreal region (Kreutzweiser et al 2013). Development of wind power has intensified where large tracts of lands are available for construction of wind towers (Bright et al 2008;Roscioni et al 2013).…”