Located in the northeastern portion of the Canadian province of Alberta, the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) supports large-scale bitumen mining operations. Such development has considerable impacts upon the landscape; however, upland habitat reclamation is underway, providing an opportunity to assess wildlife usage patterns associated with reclaimed habitats relatively early in the reclamation process. Using passerines and woodpeckers as an indicator of wildlife usage of landforms reclaimed to an upland forest type consistent with the surrounding and naturally occurring upland boreal forest, across six oil sands leases in the mineable portion of the oil sands region, we observed that reclaimed areas increased in community similarity to reference mature boreal forest plots over 35 years. Community similarity 35 years post-disturbance between reference and reclaimed sites varied from 20-65%, with an overall average of ~43%. Such low and variable similarity values were expected, as 35 years is early in the recovery process from the perspective of forest succession. Younger plots disturbed by activities other than mining, such as fire and logging (9 to 10 years post-disturbance), were associated with bird communities that were more similar to older reclaimed plots (those >30 years post-reclamation) suggesting that areas not disturbed by mining are progressing along different recovery trajectories than areas disturbed by mining. Given the time it takes for vegetation communities in the boreal to mature, continued research is required to assess the longer-term functionality of reclaimed habitats, the end point of succession in all disturbed habitat types, as well as to determine what level of community similarity between reference and reclaimed plots is satisfactory from an ecological and regulatory perspective. Despite the observed differences between reclaimed habitats and mature forests, reclamation efforts in the mineable portion of the AOSR appear to be contributing to the development of upland boreal forest habitats that resemble those of the surrounding and naturally occurring boreal forest.

中文翻译：

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鸟类利用加拿大油砂开垦的北方森林栖息地的趋势

阿萨巴斯卡油砂区 (AOSR) 位于加拿大阿尔伯塔省的东北部，支持大规模的沥青开采作业。这种发展对景观有相当大的影响；然而，高地栖息地开垦正在进行中，这提供了一个机会，可以在开垦过程的早期评估与开垦栖息地相关的野生动物使用模式。使用雀类和啄木鸟作为野生动物使用地貌的指标，开垦成与周围和自然发生的高地北方森林一致的山地森林类型，在油砂地区可开采部分的六个油砂租约中，我们观察到开垦面积增加35 年来与参考成熟北方森林地块的群落相似性。参考地点和复垦地点之间的社区相似度在扰动后 35 年间变化在 20-65% 之间，总体平均值约为 43%。如此低且多变的相似值是预料之中的，因为从森林演替的角度来看，35 年是恢复过程的早期。受采矿以外活动干扰的年轻地块，例如火灾和伐木（扰乱后 9 至 10 年），与鸟类群落相关，这些地块与较旧的开垦地块（开垦后 30 年以上）更相似，这表明该地区没有受采矿干扰的地区与受采矿干扰的地区正沿着不同的恢复轨迹发展。鉴于北方的植被群落成熟需要时间，需要继续研究以评估开垦栖息地的长期功能，所有受干扰栖息地类型的演替终点，以及从生态和监管的角度确定参考地块和开垦地块之间的群落相似性水平是令人满意的。尽管观察到开垦的栖息地和成熟森林之间存在差异，但 AOSR 可开采部分的开垦努力似乎有助于开发类似于周围和自然发生的北方森林的高地北方森林栖息地。