A synthetic review of terrestrial biological research from the Alberta oil sands region: 10 years of published literature

Abstract

In the past decade, a large volume of peer-reviewed papers has examined the potential impacts of oil and gas resource extraction in the Canadian oil sands (OS). A large proportion focuses on terrestrial biology: wildlife, birds, and vegetation. We provide a qualitative synthesis of the condition of the environment in the oil sands region (OSR) from 2009 to 2020 to identify gaps and progress cumulative effects assessments. Our objectives were to (1) qualitatively synthesize and critically review knowledge from the OSR; (2) identify consistent trends and generalizable conclusions; and (3) pinpoint gaps in need of greater monitoring or research effort. We visualize knowledge and terrestrial monitoring foci by allocating papers to a conceptual model for the OS. Despite a recent increase in publications, focus has remained concentrated on a few key stressors, especially landscape disturbance, and a few taxa of interest. Stressor and response monitoring is well represented, but direct monitoring of pathways (linkages between stressors and responses) is limited. Important knowledge gaps include understanding effects at multiple spatial scales, mammal health effects monitoring, focused monitoring of local resources important to Indigenous communities, and geospatial coverage and availability, including higher attribute resolution in human footprint, comprehensive land cover mapping, and up-to-date LiDAR coverage. Causal attribution based on spatial proximity to operations or spatial orientation of monitoring in the region is common but may be limited in the strength of inference that it provides. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:388-406. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC).

Keywords: Athabasca; Biodiversity; Canada; Cumulative effects; Environmental monitoring.

Figure 1

Map of the Canadian oil sands region in northeastern Alberta, Canada, identifying the three main OS regions (Peace, Athabasca, and Cold Lake) as well as urban centers, major hydrological features, the surface minable OS area (in dark gray), and protected areas (in green)

Figure 2

Terrestrial biological conceptual model for the oil sands region, showing pressures, stressors, pathways, and responses. For reference, papers included in our review that demonstrated evidence for that model component are shown in the respective boxes by a number corresponding to the review tables (Appendix S1) and numbered bibliography (Appendix S3). Boxes are connected by gray lines if we found evidence of their connection in the reviewed literature (i.e., if a paper appears in multiple boxes, they are connected). Dashed lines represent stressor–response relationships in the literature that did not have a defined pathway

Figure 3

Extent of landscape disturbance in the oil sands region of northeastern Alberta (ABMI, 2017), showing the extent of human footprint in the area as (A) mapped linear disturbance features and (B) mapped polygonal disturbance features