Ecological Impacts of Industrial Disturbances in Boreal Forest Ecosystems and Approaches to Their Restoration

A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 3643

Special Issue Editors

Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre, Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5, Canada
Interests: biodiversity; arachnology; land restoration; forest management; disturbance ecology
Natural Resources Canada—Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Center, Edmonton, AB T6H 3S5, Canada
Interests: plant ecology; forest ecology; disturbance ecology; linear features; land restoration

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Industrial disturbances resulting from the extractive activities of natural resources leave a substantial footprint in Boreal ecosystems, resulting in significant contributions to forest fragmentation and influencing various negative ecological features. The footprint in many of these affected areas is long-lasting and the natural recovery of forest cover is minimal even decades after the disturbance. Human intervention has become a common practice when aiming to restore ecological function on disturbed land efficiently and effectively. Many knowledge gaps remain regarding the impacts of industrial disturbances on ecosystem function and the outcomes of restoration efforts aiming to mitigate this footprint.

We invite authors to submit manuscripts to this Special Issue in order to compile an overview of recent advances in the field of land restoration with the objective of summarizing the current state of knowledge on environmental impacts following different industrial disturbances and providing guidance for restoration practitioners. This Special Issue especially welcomes contributions that describe ecological responses to disturbances and restoration approaches in diverse areas, including (but not limited to) biodiversity, forest structure and composition, natural and assisted regeneration, carbon dynamics, hydrology, soil properties, single species management, and remote sensing.

Dr. Jaime Pinzon
Dr. Anna Dabros
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • land restoration
  • forest management
  • ecosystem services
  • boreal forest
  • disturbance
  • adaptive management
  • mitigation of industrial footprints

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 2504 KiB  
Article
Inverted Soil Mounding as a Restoration Approach of Seismic Lines in Boreal Peatlands: Implications on Plant and Arthropod Abundance and Diversity
by Laureen Echiverri, Jaime Pinzon and Anna Dabros
Forests 2023, 14(11), 2123; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14112123 - 25 Oct 2023
Viewed by 832
Abstract
In northern Alberta, Canada, much of treed boreal peatlands are fragmented by seismic lines—linear disturbances where trees and shrubs are cleared for the exploration of fossil fuel reserves. Seismic lines have been shown to have slow tree regeneration, likely due to the loss [...] Read more.
In northern Alberta, Canada, much of treed boreal peatlands are fragmented by seismic lines—linear disturbances where trees and shrubs are cleared for the exploration of fossil fuel reserves. Seismic lines have been shown to have slow tree regeneration, likely due to the loss of microtopography during the creation of seismic lines. Inverted soil mounding is one of the treatments commonly applied in Alberta to restore seismic lines and mitigate the use of these corridors by wildlife and humans. We assessed the effects of mounding on understory plants and arthropod assemblages three years after treatment application. We sampled five mounded and five untreated seismic lines and their adjacent treed fens (reference fens). Compared to reference fens, mounded seismic lines showed on average lower bryophyte (6.5% vs. 98.1%) and total understory cover (47.2% vs. 149.8%), ground-dwelling spider abundance (226.0 vs. 383 individuals), richness (87.2 vs. 106.4 species) and diversity (19.0 vs. 24.6 species), rove beetle abundance (35.2 vs. 84.8 individuals), and ant richness (9.0 vs. 12.9 species). In contrast, rove beetle and ground beetle richness (39.0 and 14.5 species, respectively) and diversity (16.8 and 7.8 species, respectively) were higher on mounded seismic lines compared to reference fens (richness: 18.0 and 7.5 species, respectively; diversity: 7.0 and 3.8 species, respectively). This is one of the first studies to assess arthropod responses to restoration efforts in the context of oil and gas disturbances in North America, and our results highlight the need to incorporate multiple taxa when examining the impact of such treatments. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 5646 KiB  
Article
Examining Drivers of Post-Fire Seismic Line Ecotone Regeneration in a Boreal Peatland Environment
by Humaira Enayetullah, Laura Chasmer, Chris Hopkinson, Daniel Thompson and Danielle Cobbaert
Forests 2023, 14(10), 1979; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14101979 - 29 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1251
Abstract
Seismic lines are the dominant anthropogenic disturbance in the boreal forest of the Canadian province of Alberta, fragmenting over 1900 km2 of peatland areas and accounting for more than 80% of all anthropogenic disturbance in this region. The goal of this study [...] Read more.
Seismic lines are the dominant anthropogenic disturbance in the boreal forest of the Canadian province of Alberta, fragmenting over 1900 km2 of peatland areas and accounting for more than 80% of all anthropogenic disturbance in this region. The goal of this study is to determine whether the wildland fires that burn across seismic lines in peatlands result in the regeneration of woody vegetation within the ecotonal areas adjacent to seismic lines. We use a combination of seismic line and vegetation structural characteristics derived from multi-spectral airborne lidar across a post-fire peatland chronosequence. We found an increasing encroachment of shrubs and trees into seismic lines after many years since a fire, especially in fens, relative to unburned peatlands. Fens typically had shorter woody vegetation regeneration (average = 3.3 m ± 0.9 m, standard deviation) adjacent to seismic lines compared to bogs (average = 3.8 m ± 1.0 m, standard deviation), despite enhanced shrubification closer to seismic lines. The incoming solar radiation and seismic line age since the establishment of seismic line(s) were the factors most strongly correlated with enhanced shrubification, suggesting that the increased light and time since a disturbance are driving these vegetation changes. Shrub encroachment closer to seismic lines tends to occur within fens, indicating that these may be more sensitive to drying conditions and vegetation regeneration after several years post-fire/post-seismic line disturbance. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 10821 KiB  
Article
The Influence of Seismic Lines on Wildfire Potential in the Boreal Region of Northern Alberta, Canada
by Lelia Weiland, Tori Green-Harrison and Scott Ketcheson
Forests 2023, 14(8), 1574; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14081574 - 01 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1141
Abstract
Seismic lines are cleared corridors for the location mapping of subsurface bitumen. After use, the lines can be left to regenerate naturally with varying success. Wildfires, another prominent disturbance in the Boreal region, are propagated by continuous fuel distribution (coarse/fine), meteorological variables (e.g., [...] Read more.
Seismic lines are cleared corridors for the location mapping of subsurface bitumen. After use, the lines can be left to regenerate naturally with varying success. Wildfires, another prominent disturbance in the Boreal region, are propagated by continuous fuel distribution (coarse/fine), meteorological variables (e.g., wind speed, temperature, and precipitation), and the moisture content of the fuel and soil. However, little is known about seismic lines and the potential risk and severity of wildfires. This work presents a case study of wildfire variables on two paired (seismic line and adjacent natural area) sites near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. Wind speed was increased on seismic lines, and the dominant wind direction changed. Higher precipitation, air temperature, and soil moisture and reduced water table depths were observed on seismic lines. Coarse fuel distribution was not continuous on seismic lines; however, fine fuels were. Although the Fire Weather Index (FWI) indicated an enhanced wildfire potential on one line (NS orientation), peat smouldering and ignition models (Hcomb/Hign) showed increased smouldering potential on both seismic lines compared to adjacent natural areas. Future work should focus on expanding the diversity of seismic line characterization, working towards the landscape-scale modelling of these variables. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop