Effects of Winter Seismic Exploration on Tundra Vegetation and The Soil Thermal Regime in The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Emers, Michael; Jorgenson, Janet C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-5670-7_26

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…We address this data gap by continuing to monitor the recovery of tundra vegetation and soil that was disturbed by winter seismic exploration in 1984 and 1985 on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Arctic NWR), Alaska. Earlier papers documented recovery on trails during the first seven years of this study (Felix and Raynolds 1989a, b, Raynolds and Felix 1989, Felix et al 1992, Emers et al 1995, Emers and Jorgenson 1997. This paper documents recovery after 18 years.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration

Jorgenson

Hoef

Jorgenson³

2010

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. In response to the increasing global demand for energy, oil exploration and development are expanding into frontier areas of the Arctic, where slow-growing tundra vegetation and the underlying permafrost soils are very sensitive to disturbance. The creation of vehicle trails on the tundra from seismic exploration for oil has accelerated in the past decade, and the cumulative impact represents a geographic footprint that covers a greater extent of Alaska's North Slope tundra than all other direct human impacts combined. Seismic exploration for oil and gas was conducted on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, USA, in the winters of 1984 and 1985. This study documents recovery of vegetation and permafrost soils over a two-decade period after vehicle traffic on snow-covered tundra. Paired permanent vegetation plots (disturbed vs. reference) were monitored six times from 1984 to 2002. Data were collected on percent vegetative cover by plant species and on soil and ground ice characteristics. We developed Bayesian hierarchical models, with temporally and spatially autocorrelated errors, to analyze the effects of vegetation type and initial disturbance levels on recovery patterns of the different plant growth forms as well as soil thaw depth. Plant community composition was altered on the trails by species-specific responses to initial disturbance and subsequent changes in substrate. Long-term changes included increased cover of graminoids and decreased cover of evergreen shrubs and mosses. Trails with low levels of initial disturbance usually improved well over time, whereas those with medium to high levels of initial disturbance recovered slowly. Trails on ice-poor, gravel substrates of riparian areas recovered better than those on ice-rich loamy soils of the uplands, even after severe initial damage. Recovery to pre-disturbance communities was not possible where trail subsidence occurred due to thawing of ground ice. Previous studies of disturbance from winter seismic vehicles in the Arctic predicted short-term and mostly aesthetic impacts, but we found that severe impacts to tundra vegetation persisted for two decades after disturbance under some conditions. We recommend management approaches that should be used to prevent persistent tundra damage.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Long‐term recovery patterns of arctic tundra after winter seismic exploration

Jorgenson

Hoef

Jorgenson³

2010

Ecological Applications

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“…Since that time studies have been conducted on the impacts of oil field development (Walker et al, 1986;Oechel, 1989), disturbance-induced thawing of permafrost soils (Truett and Kertell, 1992) and the consequences of vehicle trails in summer (e.g. Bliss and Wein, 1972) and in winter (Felix et al, 1992;Emers et al, 1995;Emers and Jorgensen, 1997). Similar studies of humaninduced disturbance have been conducted in the Canadian High Arctic (Forbes, 1992a & b;Kevan et al, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

The response of two arctic tundra plant communities to human trampling disturbance

Monz

2002

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…While naturally occurring thermokarst is fundamental to terrain diversity and ecological processes on the arctic lowlands (Britton, 1957;Billings and Peterson, 1980;Walker et al, 1980;Carter et al, 1987), human-induced thermokarst is usually a concern for land development in the Arctic because of its unwanted effects on infrastructure, hydrology, soils, and vegetation (Brown and Grave, 1979;Jorgenson, 1986;Lawson, 1986;Walker et al, 1987). Off-road and seismic trail disturbances associated with oil development activities have led to thermokarst in some circumstances (Walker et al, 1987;Emers and Jorgenson, 1997), although modern exploration equipment and winter-only exploration have greatly reduced the impacts on terrain and the development of human-induced thermokarst. Other disturbances, such as road dust, oil spill cleanups (Jorgenson et al, , 1992, closeout and rehabilitation of reserve pits (Burgess et al, 1999), and gravel removal after site abandonment (Jorgenson and Kidd, 1991;Kidd et al, 1997) still require the mitigation of thermokarstrelated processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%