Monitoring Forest Change in Landscapes Under-Going Rapid Energy Development: Challenges and New Perspectives

Land

Paul D. Pickell¹  Sarah E. Gergel²  Nicholas C. Coops¹ 

[1] Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada; E-Mail:;Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada; E-Mail:

关键词: landscape structure;    disturbance detection;    anthropogenic disturbance;    disturbance regime;    resilience;    North America;    forest land use;    oil and gas;    Bakken shale;    oil sands;    Anthropocene;   

DOI  :  10.3390/land3030617

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The accelerated development of energy resources around the world has substantially increased forest change related to oil and gas activities. In some cases, oil and gas activities are the primary catalyst of land-use change in forested landscapes. We discuss the challenges associated with characterizing ecological change related to energy resource development using North America as an exemplar. We synthesize the major impacts of energy development to forested ecosystems and offer new perspectives on how to detect and monitor anthropogenic disturbance during the Anthropocene. The disturbance of North American forests for energy development has resulted in persistent linear corridors, suppression of historical disturbance regimes, novel ecosystems, and the eradication of ecological memory. Characterizing anthropogenic disturbances using conventional patch-based disturbance measures will tend to underestimate the ecological impacts of energy development. Suitable indicators of anthropogenic impacts in forests should be derived from the integration of multi-scalar Earth observations. Relating these indicators to ecosystem condition will be a capstone in the progress toward monitoring forest change in landscapes undergoing rapid energy development.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.