Reclaiming upland boreal forests as part of post-mining watershed construction in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) requires evaluation criteria as these novel ecosystems develop. Here, we analyzed 55 site-years of eddy covariance observations of constructed forests and soils on formally pit-mined landscapes (9 sites) and contrasted them to 18 site-years of post-harvested ecosystems (3 sites) and 38 site-years of mature Boreal Plains ecosystems (3 sites). After approximately 5 years, the post-harvested sites had fluxes of gross primary productivity (GPP), evapotranspiration (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) within the variability of the widely studied mature Boreal Plains BERMS FLUXNET sites. However, even after 10 years the constructed forests had significantly lower WUE than the mature sites. High ET fluxes drove low WUE in the constructed upland conifer sites despite similar rates of GEP. Conversely, in the constructed broadleaf forests low GEP, despite similar ET, resulted in low WUE. A climate sensitivity analysis showed that there was little impact of abnormal hot, cold, wet, or dry growing seasons on GEP or evapotranspiration (ET) at the constructed forests. It is presumed that the high moisture retaining properties of the soils used in reclamation produced the low WUE and resilience to dry and hot conditions in constructed forests. Placing moisture retaining soils incorporates a degree of resilience to climate variability but also limits downgradient water yields to low lying wetlands in the relatively dry AOSR climate. This highlights a potential shortcoming of reclamation objectives developed for specific ecosystems when scaling from ecosystem to watershed scale construction. Finally, robust relationships between satellite observed greenness (MODIS EVI and NDVI) and ecosystem scale fluxes highlight how remote sensing-based metrics can be used by land managers to identify regions within landscape units that may be under performing.

随着这些新生态系统的发展，作为阿萨巴斯卡油砂区 (AOSR) 采矿后流域建设的一部分，开垦高地北方森林需要评估标准。在这里，我们分析了 55 个站点年对正式坑式开采景观（9 个站点）上人工森林和土壤的涡流协方差观测，并将它们与 18 个站点年的收获后生态系统（3 个站点）和 38 个站点年的成熟的北方平原生态系统（3 个地点）。大约 5 年后，在广泛研究的成熟 Boreal Plains BERMS FLUXNET 场地的可变性范围内，收获后场地的总初级生产力 (GPP)、蒸散量 (ET) 和水分利用效率 (WUE) 的通量。然而，即使在 10 年后，人工林的 WUE 也明显低于成熟林地。尽管 GEP 的比率相似，但高 ET 通量在建造的高地针叶树场地中推动了低 WUE。相反，在建造的阔叶林中，尽管 ET 相似，但 GEP 较低，但 WUE 较低。气候敏感性分析表明，异常炎热、寒冷、潮湿或干燥的生长季节对人工林的 GEP 或蒸散量 (ET) 的影响很小。据推测，用于复垦的土壤的高水分保持特性导致人工林中的 WUE 和对干燥和炎热条件的抵抗力低。在相对干燥的 AOSR 气候中，放置水分保持土壤结合了一定程度的气候变化恢复力，但也限制了低洼湿地的水量下降。这突出了在从生态系统扩展到流域规模建设时为特定生态系统制定的复垦目标的潜在缺陷。最后，卫星观测到的绿度（MODIS EVI 和 NDVI）与生态系统规模通量之间的稳健关系凸显了土地管理者如何使用基于遥感的指标来识别景观单元内可能表现不佳的区域。