Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Although three‐dimensional (3D) seismic surveys have improved the success rate of exploratory drilling for oil and gas, the impacts have received little scientific scrutiny, despite affecting more area than any other oil and gas activity. To aid policy‐makers and scientists, we reviewed studies of t...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7583382 2023-05-15T14:56:53+02:00 Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska Raynolds, Martha K. Jorgenson, Janet C. Jorgenson, M. Torre Kanevskiy, Mikhail Liljedahl, Anna K. Nolan, Matthew Sturm, Matthew Walker, Donald A. 2020-05-26 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7583382/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32335990 https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7583382/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32335990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 © 2020 The Authors. Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Ecological Society of America This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. CC-BY Ecol Appl Articles Text 2020 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 2020-11-01T01:50:14Z Although three‐dimensional (3D) seismic surveys have improved the success rate of exploratory drilling for oil and gas, the impacts have received little scientific scrutiny, despite affecting more area than any other oil and gas activity. To aid policy‐makers and scientists, we reviewed studies of the landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic. We analyzed a proposed 3D‐seismic program in northeast Alaska, in the northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which includes a grid 63,000 km of seismic trails and additional camp‐move trails. Current regulations are not adequate to eliminate impacts from these activities. We address issues related to the high‐density of 3D trails compared to 2D methods, with larger crews, more camps, and more vehicles. We focus on consequences to the hilly landscapes, including microtopography, snow, vegetation, hydrology, active layers, and permafrost. Based on studies of 2D‐seismic trails created in 1984–1985 in the same area by similar types of vehicles, under similar regulations, approximately 122 km(2) would likely sustain direct medium‐ to high‐level disturbance from the proposed exploration, with possibly expanded impacts through permafrost degradation and hydrological connectivity. Strong winds are common, and snow cover necessary to minimize impacts from vehicles is windblown and inadequate to protect much of the area. Studies of 2D‐seismic impacts have shown that moist vegetation types, which dominate the area, sustain longer‐lasting damage than wet or dry types, and that the heavy vehicles used for mobile camps caused the most damage. The permafrost is ice rich, which combined with the hilly topography, makes it especially susceptible to thermokarst and erosion triggered by winter vehicle traffic. The effects of climate warming will exacerbate the impacts of winter travel due to warmer permafrost and a shift of precipitation from snow to rain. The cumulative impacts of 3D‐seismic traffic in tundra areas need to be better assessed, together with the effects of ... Text Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Ecological Applications 30 7 |
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Articles Raynolds, Martha K. Jorgenson, Janet C. Jorgenson, M. Torre Kanevskiy, Mikhail Liljedahl, Anna K. Nolan, Matthew Sturm, Matthew Walker, Donald A. Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
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Articles |
description |
Although three‐dimensional (3D) seismic surveys have improved the success rate of exploratory drilling for oil and gas, the impacts have received little scientific scrutiny, despite affecting more area than any other oil and gas activity. To aid policy‐makers and scientists, we reviewed studies of the landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic. We analyzed a proposed 3D‐seismic program in northeast Alaska, in the northern Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which includes a grid 63,000 km of seismic trails and additional camp‐move trails. Current regulations are not adequate to eliminate impacts from these activities. We address issues related to the high‐density of 3D trails compared to 2D methods, with larger crews, more camps, and more vehicles. We focus on consequences to the hilly landscapes, including microtopography, snow, vegetation, hydrology, active layers, and permafrost. Based on studies of 2D‐seismic trails created in 1984–1985 in the same area by similar types of vehicles, under similar regulations, approximately 122 km(2) would likely sustain direct medium‐ to high‐level disturbance from the proposed exploration, with possibly expanded impacts through permafrost degradation and hydrological connectivity. Strong winds are common, and snow cover necessary to minimize impacts from vehicles is windblown and inadequate to protect much of the area. Studies of 2D‐seismic impacts have shown that moist vegetation types, which dominate the area, sustain longer‐lasting damage than wet or dry types, and that the heavy vehicles used for mobile camps caused the most damage. The permafrost is ice rich, which combined with the hilly topography, makes it especially susceptible to thermokarst and erosion triggered by winter vehicle traffic. The effects of climate warming will exacerbate the impacts of winter travel due to warmer permafrost and a shift of precipitation from snow to rain. The cumulative impacts of 3D‐seismic traffic in tundra areas need to be better assessed, together with the effects of ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Raynolds, Martha K. Jorgenson, Janet C. Jorgenson, M. Torre Kanevskiy, Mikhail Liljedahl, Anna K. Nolan, Matthew Sturm, Matthew Walker, Donald A. |
author_facet |
Raynolds, Martha K. Jorgenson, Janet C. Jorgenson, M. Torre Kanevskiy, Mikhail Liljedahl, Anna K. Nolan, Matthew Sturm, Matthew Walker, Donald A. |
author_sort |
Raynolds, Martha K. |
title |
Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
title_short |
Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
title_full |
Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Landscape impacts of 3D‐seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska |
title_sort |
landscape impacts of 3d‐seismic surveys in the arctic national wildlife refuge, alaska |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7583382/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32335990 https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ice permafrost Thermokarst Tundra Alaska |
op_source |
Ecol Appl |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7583382/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32335990 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 |
op_rights |
© 2020 The Authors. Ecological Applications published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Ecological Society of America This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2143 |
container_title |
Ecological Applications |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
7 |
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1766328942616117248 |