School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Ecol Appl. 2023 Jan;33(1):e2722. doi: 10.1002/eap.2722. Epub 2022 Oct 9.
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.
景观变化是全球生物多样性丧失的驱动因素之一。在西近北极地区，石油勘探和开采是景观变化的主要原因，这对大型哺乳动物种群产生了相应的影响。其中一个影响是，入侵的白尾鹿种群不断向北方森林扩张，对整个生态系统产生了影响。我们利用航空有蹄类动物调查（AUS）数据的新应用，探讨了北方森林石油砂地区鹿类资源的选择。AUS 的鹿类位置是“使用”点，与随机分配的“可用”点一起，根据北方森林的景观变量，了解了鹿类资源的选择。我们创建了一组广义线性模型，代表了关于自然景观特征、森林采伐、种植、道路和石油特征作用的竞争假设。我们在信息论框架中对这些模型进行了排名。自然和人为景观特征的组合最能解释鹿类资源的选择。鹿类强烈选择与石油勘探和开采相关的地震线和其他线性特征，可能作为运动走廊和资源补充。森林采伐和种植是白尾鹿分布区其他地区扩张的重要因素，但在这里并不重要。为了保护本地有蹄类动物并维持关键的捕食者-猎物过程，遏制鹿类的扩张可能需要进行景观管理，以恢复穿越广阔石油砂地区的广泛线性特征。
