Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration
In response to the increasing global demand for energy, oil exploration and development are expanding into frontier areas of the Arctic, where slow‐growing tundra vegetation and the underlying permafrost soils are very sensitive to disturbance. The creation of vehicle trails on the tundra from seism...
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crwiley:10.1890/08-1856.1 2024-09-15T18:11:35+00:00 Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration Jorgenson, Janet C. Hoef, Jay M. Ver Jorgenson, M. T. 2010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/08-1856.1 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1890%2F08-1856.1 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1890/08-1856.1 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecological Applications volume 20, issue 1, page 205-221 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 journal-article 2010 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1890/08-1856.1 2024-08-06T04:19:13Z In response to the increasing global demand for energy, oil exploration and development are expanding into frontier areas of the Arctic, where slow‐growing tundra vegetation and the underlying permafrost soils are very sensitive to disturbance. The creation of vehicle trails on the tundra from seismic exploration for oil has accelerated in the past decade, and the cumulative impact represents a geographic footprint that covers a greater extent of Alaska's North Slope tundra than all other direct human impacts combined. Seismic exploration for oil and gas was conducted on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, in the winters of 1984 and 1985. This study documents recovery of vegetation and permafrost soils over a two‐decade period after vehicle traffic on snow‐covered tundra. Paired permanent vegetation plots (disturbed vs. reference) were monitored six times from 1984 to 2002. Data were collected on percent vegetative cover by plant species and on soil and ground ice characteristics. We developed Bayesian hierarchical models, with temporally and spatially autocorrelated errors, to analyze the effects of vegetation type and initial disturbance levels on recovery patterns of the different plant growth forms as well as soil thaw depth. Plant community composition was altered on the trails by species‐specific responses to initial disturbance and subsequent changes in substrate. Long‐term changes included increased cover of graminoids and decreased cover of evergreen shrubs and mosses. Trails with low levels of initial disturbance usually improved well over time, whereas those with medium to high levels of initial disturbance recovered slowly. Trails on ice‐poor, gravel substrates of riparian areas recovered better than those on ice‐rich loamy soils of the uplands, even after severe initial damage. Recovery to pre‐disturbance communities was not possible where trail subsidence occurred due to thawing of ground ice. Previous studies of disturbance from winter seismic vehicles in the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice north slope permafrost Tundra Alaska Wiley Online Library Ecological Applications 20 1 205 221 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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English |
description |
In response to the increasing global demand for energy, oil exploration and development are expanding into frontier areas of the Arctic, where slow‐growing tundra vegetation and the underlying permafrost soils are very sensitive to disturbance. The creation of vehicle trails on the tundra from seismic exploration for oil has accelerated in the past decade, and the cumulative impact represents a geographic footprint that covers a greater extent of Alaska's North Slope tundra than all other direct human impacts combined. Seismic exploration for oil and gas was conducted on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, in the winters of 1984 and 1985. This study documents recovery of vegetation and permafrost soils over a two‐decade period after vehicle traffic on snow‐covered tundra. Paired permanent vegetation plots (disturbed vs. reference) were monitored six times from 1984 to 2002. Data were collected on percent vegetative cover by plant species and on soil and ground ice characteristics. We developed Bayesian hierarchical models, with temporally and spatially autocorrelated errors, to analyze the effects of vegetation type and initial disturbance levels on recovery patterns of the different plant growth forms as well as soil thaw depth. Plant community composition was altered on the trails by species‐specific responses to initial disturbance and subsequent changes in substrate. Long‐term changes included increased cover of graminoids and decreased cover of evergreen shrubs and mosses. Trails with low levels of initial disturbance usually improved well over time, whereas those with medium to high levels of initial disturbance recovered slowly. Trails on ice‐poor, gravel substrates of riparian areas recovered better than those on ice‐rich loamy soils of the uplands, even after severe initial damage. Recovery to pre‐disturbance communities was not possible where trail subsidence occurred due to thawing of ground ice. Previous studies of disturbance from winter seismic vehicles in the ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Jorgenson, Janet C. Hoef, Jay M. Ver Jorgenson, M. T. |
spellingShingle |
Jorgenson, Janet C. Hoef, Jay M. Ver Jorgenson, M. T. Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
author_facet |
Jorgenson, Janet C. Hoef, Jay M. Ver Jorgenson, M. T. |
author_sort |
Jorgenson, Janet C. |
title |
Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
title_short |
Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
title_full |
Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
title_fullStr |
Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
title_full_unstemmed |
Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
title_sort |
long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/08-1856.1 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1890%2F08-1856.1 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1890/08-1856.1 |
genre |
Ice north slope permafrost Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Ice north slope permafrost Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Ecological Applications volume 20, issue 1, page 205-221 ISSN 1051-0761 1939-5582 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1890/08-1856.1 |
container_title |
Ecological Applications |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
205 |
op_container_end_page |
221 |
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1810449168542466048 |