Industrial development within Canada's boreal zone has increased in recent decades. Forest management activities, pulp and paper operations, electric power generation, mining, conventional oil and gas extraction, nonconventional oil sand development, and peat mining occur throughout the boreal zone with varying impacts on water resources. We review impacts of these industries on surface water, groundwater, and wetlands recognizing that heterogeneity in the dominance of different hydrologic processes (i.e., precipitation, evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, and runoff generation) across the boreal zone influences the degree of impacts on water resources. Through the application of best management practices, forest certification programs, and science-based guidelines, timber, pulp and paper, and peat industries have reduced their impacts on water resources, although uncertainties remain about long-term recovery following disturbance. Hydroelectric power developments have moved toward reducing reservoir size and creating more natural flow regimes, although impacts of aging infrastructure and dam decommissioning is largely unknown. Mineral and metal mining industries have improved regulation and practices, but the legacy of abandoned mines across the boreal zone still presents an ongoing risk to water resources. Oil and gas industries, including non-conventional resources such as oil sands, is one of the largest industrial users of water and, while significant progress has been made in reducing water use, more work is needed to ensure the protection of water resources. All industries contribute to atmospheric deposition of pollutants that may eventually be released to downstream waters. Although most industrial sectors strive to improve their environmental performance with regards to water resources, disruptions to natural flow regimes and risks of degraded water quality exist at local to regional scales in the boreal zone. Addressing the emerging challenge of managing the expanding, intensifying, and cumulative effects of industries in conjunction with other stressors, such as climate change and atmospheric pollution, across the landscape will aid in preserving Canada's rich endowment of water resources.Key words: natural resources, development, hydrology, biogeochemistry, cumulative effects, water quality, water quantity. Résumé :Le développement industriel dans la zone boréale canadienne s'est accru au cours des récentes décades. Les activités en aménagement forestier, les opérations dans les pâtes et papiers, la génération de pouvoir électrique, les mines, l'extraction de l'huile et du gaz conventionnel, le développement non conventionnel des sables bitumineux ainsi que le prélèvement de la tourbe s'effectuent sur l'ensemble de la zone boréale avec divers impacts sur les ressources hydriques. Les auteurs passent en revue les impacts de ces industries sur l'eau de surface, l'eau souterraine et les terrains humides, tout en reconnaissant que l'hétérogénéité de la dominance des différents processus ...

Conservation efforts to sustain water resources and aquatic biodiversity in boreal watersheds will require reliable information on the recent status of various indicator species and an improved understanding of the risks to aquatic biodiversity posed by resource development activities. We reviewed the recent state of knowledge on the responses of aquatic biodiversity to forest management, pulp and paper mill effluents, hydroelectric impoundments, mining of minerals and metals, oil sands extractions, and peat mining and offer a prognosis for aquatic biodiversity under each of these environmental stressors. Despite the prevalence of natural resource development in Canada’s largest forest ecosystem, there was a limited amount of published literature on the effects of many of the disturbance types on various indicators of aquatic biodiversity, making it difficult to produce a current and reliable status assessment. Across most of the boreal zone, there is a lack of coordinated, consistent data collection for many of the bioindicators and disturbance types discussed in this review. Forecasting the future state of aquatic biodiversity across the boreal zone is challenged by increasing natural resource development and its interactions with other stressors, especially climate change. The cumulative effects of multiple stressors coupled with resource development activities in boreal watersheds remain largely unknown. More importantly, the ecological thresholds for these cumulative effects (that is, the point at which aquatic ecosystems and their biodiversity cannot recover to a desired state within a reasonable time frame) are also unknown and remain gaps in our knowledge. The recent literature identifies a number of risks to aquatic biodiversity at local (tens of square kilometres) to regional (hundreds of square kilometres) scales associated with natural resource development. There are indications that many of these risks can be minimized by “greener” technologies for resource development and reclamation, practical conservation planning and regulation, and increased stewardship in watershed management, although the effectiveness of many of these measures cannot yet be assessed from the published literature.

BackgroundPeatlands are an important component of Canada’s landscape, however there is little information on their national-scale net emissions of carbon dioxide [Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE)] and methane (CH4). This study compiled results for peatland NEE and CH4 emissions from chamber and eddy covariance studies across Canada. The data were summarized by bog, poor fen and rich-intermediate fen categories for the seven major peatland containing terrestrial ecozones (Atlantic Maritime, Mixedwood Plains, Boreal Shield, Boreal Plains, Hudson Plains, Taiga Shield, Taiga Plains) that comprise > 96% of all peatlands nationally. Reports of multiple years of data from a single site were averaged and different microforms (e.g., hummock or hollow) within these peatland types were kept separate. A new peatlands map was created from forest composition and structure information that distinguishes bog from rich and poor fen. National Forest Inventory k-NN forest structure maps, bioclimatic variables (mean diurnal range and seasonality of temperatures) and ground surface slope were used to construct the new map. The Earth Observation for Sustainable Development map of wetlands was used to identify open peatlands with minor tree cover.ResultsThe new map was combined with averages of observed NEE and CH4 emissions to estimate a growing season integrated NEE (± SE) at − 108.8 (± 41.3) Mt CO2 season−1 and CH4 emission at 4.1 (± 1.5) Mt CH4 season−1 for the seven ecozones. Converting CH4 to CO2 equivalent (CO2e; Global Warming Potential of 25 over 100 years) resulted in a total net sink of − 7.0 (± 77.6) Mt CO2e season−1 for Canada. Boreal Plains peatlands contributed most to the NEE sink due to high CO2 uptake rates and large peatland areas, while Boreal Shield peatlands contributed most to CH4 emissions due to moderate emission rates and large peatland areas. Assuming a winter CO2 emission of 0.9 g CO2 m−2 day−1 creates an annual CO2 source (24.2 Mt CO2 year−1) and assuming a winter CH4 emission of 7 mg CH4 m−2 day−1 inflates the total net source to 151.8 Mt CO2e year−1.ConclusionsThis analysis improves upon previous basic, aspatial estimates and discusses the potential sources of the high uncertainty in spatially integrated fluxes, indicating a need for continued monitoring and refined maps of peatland distribution for national carbon and greenhouse gas flux estimation.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13021-018-0105-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.