Can plant or lichen natural abundance 15N ratios indicate the influence of oil sands N emissions on bogs?

Incorporating Industrial and Climatic Covariates into Analyses of Fish Health Indicators Measured in a Stream in Canada’s Oil Sands Region

“…Whereas some studies may still detect differences over time despite the potential influence of atmospheric emissions and deposition from industrial development in reference areas [51], accounting for industrial activity at all locations may enhance the sensitivity of monitoring to the stressors of interest. However, industrial emissions may also be associated with enrichment effects [39,84,85], and more work is likely required to determine the veracity of these potentially meaningful associations. The implications of associations between aquatic ecosystems and industrial emissions for future monitoring in Canada's OSR e.g., [32], such as the need to incorporate the results of deposition models [82,86], more detailed records of industrial performance, and/or investigations of more specific effect pathways into an integrated design [87] also likely requires additional work.…”

“…First, the magnitude and occurrence of an effect depended on the EN configuration, such as the inclusion of upper limits and/or PFs and the utility of using an upper limit of zero is not clear. Although negative impacts of oil sands industrial activity are often expected and emphasized in reporting [90], some enriching effects of industrial processes are also possible [39,85]. Additionally, zones of exposure from one facility to another may be especially challenging to approximate.…”