Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia
This research sought to determine the attributes affecting unassisted ecosystem recovery after placer mining. Ninety post-mining sites in 14 creek drainages east of Atlin Lake, British Columbia, were sampled to represent a range of times since disturbance (9 to 76 years). The six indicators utilized...
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University of Northern British Columbia
2017
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ftunbcolumbiadc:oai:unbc.arcabc.ca:unbc_17387 2024-05-19T07:37:51+00:00 Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia Haig, Jose (Author) Burton, Philip (Thesis advisor) University of Northern British Columbia College of Science and Management (Degree granting institution) Rea, Roy (Committee member) Wilford, David (Committee member) 2017 electronic Number of pages in document: 80 https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A17387 https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 English eng University of Northern British Columbia unbc:17387 uuid: dc5e0c87-7bde-4e51-ad9d-635906883554 lac: TC-BPGUB-1402 https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A17387 Copyright retained by author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Text thesis 2017 ftunbcolumbiadc https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 2024-04-19T00:30:46Z This research sought to determine the attributes affecting unassisted ecosystem recovery after placer mining. Ninety post-mining sites in 14 creek drainages east of Atlin Lake, British Columbia, were sampled to represent a range of times since disturbance (9 to 76 years). The six indicators utilized (vascular species richness, plant community similarity to undisturbed reference sites, summed plant cover, structural diversity, A-horizon depth, wildlife activity) exhibited different recovery trajectories and dependencies. Across all six indicators, the factors most important to ecosystem recovery were, in order of importance: time since disturbance, microsite relief, elevation, slope position, and soil texture. Without any reclamation, linear extrapolation indicates that a mean of 101 years would be needed for disturbed sites to return to mean undisturbed conditions. Classification and regression tree analysis identified thresholds of these factors that may promote or hinder recovery. These thresholds were used to refine recommendations for promoting ecosystem recovery after mining. ecosystem recovery placer mining British Columbia Thesis Atlin Lake UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
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UNBC's Digital Institutional Repository (University of Northern British Columbia) |
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ftunbcolumbiadc |
language |
English |
description |
This research sought to determine the attributes affecting unassisted ecosystem recovery after placer mining. Ninety post-mining sites in 14 creek drainages east of Atlin Lake, British Columbia, were sampled to represent a range of times since disturbance (9 to 76 years). The six indicators utilized (vascular species richness, plant community similarity to undisturbed reference sites, summed plant cover, structural diversity, A-horizon depth, wildlife activity) exhibited different recovery trajectories and dependencies. Across all six indicators, the factors most important to ecosystem recovery were, in order of importance: time since disturbance, microsite relief, elevation, slope position, and soil texture. Without any reclamation, linear extrapolation indicates that a mean of 101 years would be needed for disturbed sites to return to mean undisturbed conditions. Classification and regression tree analysis identified thresholds of these factors that may promote or hinder recovery. These thresholds were used to refine recommendations for promoting ecosystem recovery after mining. ecosystem recovery placer mining British Columbia |
author2 |
Haig, Jose (Author) Burton, Philip (Thesis advisor) University of Northern British Columbia College of Science and Management (Degree granting institution) Rea, Roy (Committee member) Wilford, David (Committee member) |
format |
Thesis |
title |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
spellingShingle |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
title_short |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
title_full |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
title_fullStr |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
title_full_unstemmed |
Factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern British Columbia |
title_sort |
factors affecting ecosystem recovery after placer mining in northwestern british columbia |
publisher |
University of Northern British Columbia |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A17387 https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 |
genre |
Atlin Lake |
genre_facet |
Atlin Lake |
op_relation |
unbc:17387 uuid: dc5e0c87-7bde-4e51-ad9d-635906883554 lac: TC-BPGUB-1402 https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 https://unbc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/unbc%3A17387 |
op_rights |
Copyright retained by author. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.24124/2017/1402 |
_version_ |
1799477236687962112 |