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Seismic lines—narrow and straight corridors from which overstory has been removed to allow access for oil and gas exploration—are a major human footprint in the boreal forest of western Canada. With slow to minimal recovery of tree cover along these corridors, seismic lines have become a persistent landscape feature affecting connectivity and habitat quality in forested ecosystems, particularly in wetland areas. Soil mounding is a common ground preparation treatment widely applied along seismic lines, with the expectation that it will enhance tree seedling establishment and improve the return of tree cover to disturbed areas. However, much is still unknown about environmental responses following treatment application. In this study, we compared the ground microtopography in treated and untreated seismic lines, as well as the relative elevation between treated and untreated seismic lines with their adjacent treed peatland. The ground elevation in both treated and untreated sites was significantly lower on seismic lines relative to their adjacent treed peatland, with a greater elevation difference in treated areas. Likewise, ground microtopography was orders of magnitude higher along treated areas compared to the natural variation in the adjacent treed peatland. Given the important changes in relative elevation and topography following treatment application, our results suggest the potential for eventual treatment success may be more unpredictable than expected; this may have critical consequences for other ecological properties beyond the restoration goal of tree establishment and return of tree cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Exploration practices for oil sands developments in the boreal forest of western Canada create a network of thousands of kilometers of linear features, particularly seismic lines that dissect these forests posing significant environmental challenges. As wildfire is one of the prevalent stand‐replacing natural disturbances in the Canadian boreal forest, it is an important driver of environmental change and stand development that may contribute to the mitigation of such linear industrial footprint. Here, we evaluate the short‐term cumulative (also known as combined) effects of seismic lines and wildfire on biodiversity and site conditions. One year after the Horse River (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada) fire event in the spring of 2016, we compared dissected and undisturbed forests in burned and unburned boreal peatlands, assessing changes in overall stand structure and the responses of a variety of organisms. Soil moisture was significantly higher on seismic lines than in the adjacent forest, suggesting why most of the study sites within the fire perimeter showed little evidence of burning at the line in relation to the adjacent forest. Low fire severity on seismic lines seemed an important driver of local species diversity for ants, beetles, spiders, and plants in disturbed peatlands, resulting in similar species composition on seismic lines both within and outside the burned area, but different assemblages in burned and unburned adjacent forests. Our results suggest that fire did not erase seismic lines; rather, wildfire might increase the influence of this footprint on the recovering adjacent forest. Longer‐term monitoring will be necessary to understand how boreal treed peatlands respond to the cumulative effect of wildfire and linear disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-impact seismic (LIS) techniques were developed to reduce the environmental footprint of oil exploration. Though relatively narrow (∼2–3 m) and constructed with light-weight equipment, these lines cause forest fragmentation, and with their high density and potential edge influence extending into adjacent forest, their impact may be considerably underestimated. We assessed the effects of 3- to 4-year-old LIS lines in upland coniferous sub-boreal forests in northwestern Alberta (Canada) by investigating the distance of influence from the LIS line centre, through the edge and into the adjacent forest on vascular and non-vascular plant species diversity and cover and on several environmental factors. We also assessed whether cardinal orientation of the edge affects influence on plants and environmental factors. Edge orientation had no effect on extent of edge influence on plants or environmental variables, but distance from seismic line edge did. Species diversity of herbaceous plants was lowest from the seismic line edge up to 15 m into the adjacent forest, when compared to mid- (25 m) and far-interior (75 m) forest. In contrast, cover was lower 5 m from the seismic line edge in comparison to far-interior forest, but conditions on the seismic lines did not differ from the seismic line edge or any sampled distance up to 75 m from the edge. Non-vascular species had lower diversity and cover on the seismic lines and along the edges in comparison to any distance away from the edge. There was no effect of distance from the seismic line edge on live woody plants, but deadwood was more frequently encountered near the seismic line edges in comparison to interior forest. Soil temperature was higher on the seismic lines and along the line edges whereas soil moisture on the seismic lines was about twice as high as at the edges and adjacent forest. Seismic lines and edges also received more light than the forest near the edge, but not more than the far-interior forest. With edge influence detectable up to 15 m from edge 3 to 4 years post-construction, long-term and regular monitoring of LIS lines is recommended, as active management and remedial reclamation actions might be required to bring the recovery of these disturbances on the right trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• • Bryophytes regenerated well on low impact seismic (LIS) lines in boreal uplands. • • Feathermoss increased on LIS lines over 5 years from 25 % to 90 % • • Vascular plants did not show strong signs of regeneration over 5 years. • • Edge effects into the forest similar for herbaceous plants over 5 years. • • Succession on LIS lines follows unique pattern compared other boreal disturbances. As of the mid-1990 s, low impact seismic (LIS) line construction (<3 m wide) became common practice in western Canada and replaced construction of wider (5–10 m) conventional seismic lines, with the intention of mitigating the known negative environmental impacts (e.g., severe soil damage and minimal vegetation recovery) of these long, narrow corridors used by the Oil and Gas (O&G) industry for exploration. Though the apparent disturbance severity on LIS lines is lower compared to conventional lines and it is expected that succession would proceed more readily towards the conditions resembling pre-disturbance forested state in the upland boreal, there is little scientific evidence that supports this. Here, we assess environmental conditions, successional trajectories and potential edge effects extending into the adjacent forest from the LIS line edges three (2014) and eight (2019) years after their construction in 2011, in the southern upland boreal forest of Swan Hills region in northwestern Alberta, to determine if active restoration measures should be recommended. Soil moisture and light were higher on the lines compared to the adjacent forest. Bryophytes (particularly feathermosses associated with late-succession forests) recovered well within eight years of disturbance (attaining nearly 90 % cover in 2019, from a relatively low cover (∼25 %) on the lines in 2014, compared to ∼ 80–90 % in the adjacent forest in both years), while the shrub and herbaceous layers recovered minimally, and tree species were still mostly absent on these lines. Herbaceous species also had a lower cover in the ∼ 2 m zone away from the line edges compared to the interior 75 m away, indicating edge effects in both years. Our results indicate that LIS lines appear to possess a unique combination of similarities and differences to other common boreal disturbances (fire, harvest), resulting in the equally unique successional trajectories that do not generally follow patterns known to occur in upland boreal forests. Long-term monitoring is imperative to determine whether LIS lines will eventually return to the pre-disturbance conditions or whether human intervention will be required to promote the growth of the canopy cover, especially as they constitute part of the habitat for Woodland caribou, an important threatened wildlife species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This research note presents the results of a bibliometric analysis that was conducted to better understand the impact that Sustainable Forest Management Network (SFMN) funded research had in the forest-related social and Aboriginal research communities. We applied two indicators of research impact: (i) research outputs and (ii) citations. Our results suggest that the SFMN's research outputs were highest in the fields of economics, sociology, and political science and law. The number of research articles that acknowledged the SFMN was 30% of the total research output of the SFMN-funded Principal Investigators. These articles represented 3% of the social science articles published in the Forestry Chronicle (the journal most frequently used by SFMN-funded Principal Investigators). Research output related to Aboriginal forestry indicated that the SFMN had a significant influence on the development of the field. Our citation analysis indicated that the average number of citations per SFMN-acknowledged publication in the social sciences was approximately the same as the international impact standard in the field. These results suggest that the SFMN-funded research in the social sciences compared very well with the international research standards in forest-related social sciences. Cette note de recherche expose les résultats d'une analyse bibliométrique effectuée afin de mieux comprendre l'impact des projets de recherche financés par le Réseau de gestion durable des forêts (RGDF) au sein des communautés scientifiques préoccupées par les aspects sociaux et les enjeux autochtones en foresterie. Nous avons utilisés deux types d'indicateurs pour mesurer l'impact de la recherche : (i) la production scientifique et (ii) les citations. Nos résultats montrent que la production scientifique du RGDF est la plus prolifique dans les domaines de l'économique, de la sociologie, de la science politique et du droit. Le nombre d'articles scientifiques qui reconnaissent la contribution du RGDF 30 % de la production totale des chercheurs principaux financés par le RGDF. Ces articles constituent 3 % des articles en sciences sociales publiés dans le Forestry Chronicle (la publication la plus fréquemment utilisée par les chercheurs principaux financés par le RGDF). La production scientifique reliée à la foresterie autochtone montre que le RGDF a eu une influence marquante sur le développement du domaine. Notre analyse des citations indique que le nombre moyen de citations par publication en sciences sociales attribuée au RGDF est approximativement le même que la norme internationale dans ce domaine. Ces résultats indiquent que la contribution scientifique du RGDF dans le domaine des sciences sociales se compare très bien aux normes internationales dans le domaine de la recherche en sciences sociales en lien avec la foresterie. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews trends in the academic literature on cumulative effects assessment (CEA) of disturbance on forest ecosystems to advance research in the broader context of impact assessments. Disturbance is any distinct spatiotemporal event that disrupts the structure and composition of an ecosystem affecting resource availability. We developed a Python package to automate search term selection, write search strategies, reduce bias and improve the efficient and effective selection of articles from academic databases and grey literature. We identified 148 peer-reviewed literature published between 1986 and 2022 and conducted an inductive and deductive thematic analysis of the results. Our findings revealed that CEA studies are concentrated in the global north, with most publications from authors affiliated with government agencies in the USA and Canada. Methodological and analytical approaches are less interdisciplinary but mainly quantitative and expert-driven, involving modeling the impacts of disturbances on biophysical valued components. Furthermore, the assessment of socioeconomic valued components, including the effects of disturbance on Indigenous wellbeing connected to forests, has received less attention. Even though there is a high preference for regional assessment, challenges with data access, quality, and analysis, especially baseline data over long periods, are hampering effective CEA. Few articles examined CEA – policy/management nexus. Of the few studies, challenges such as the inadequate implementation of CEA mitigation strategies due to policy drawbacks and resource constraints, the high cost of monitoring multiple indicators, and poor connections between scenarios/modeling and management actions were paramount. Future CEA research is needed to broaden our understanding of how multiple disturbance affects forests in the global south and coupled social and ecological systems and their implications for sustainable forest management. • We review cumulative effect assessments of disturbances in forest ecosystems. • The study developed a Python package to automate the search term selection. • We identified 148 peer review and grey literature across 29 countries. • Most studies are located in the global north, and methodologies are expert-driven. • Study should focus on how disturbance affects coupled social and ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]