Cause-Effect Monitoring, Oil Sands Region

Environment and Climate Change Canada’s cause-effect monitoring is focused on understanding how boreal songbirds, including several Species at Risk, are affected by human activity in the oil sands area, particularly the impact of the physical disturbance of forested habitats from exploration, development and construction of oil sands. Determining the abundance of songbird species associated with various habitat type(s) and understanding how the type and number of birds varies with type and amount of habitat, are important components of assessing the effect of habitat disturbance. Regional-scale monitoring focuses on understanding how and why boreal songbirds, including several Species at Risk, are affected by human activity across the Peace, Athabasca and Cold Lake oil sands area. Local-scale projects focus on addressing gaps in our understanding of complex response patterns at regional scales by targeting specific habitats or development features of interest. These data contribute to: a. improving the design of monitoring programs; b. explaining observed trends in populations (why bird populations are increasing or decreasing); c. predicting population sizes within the oil sands…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

2

Catalogue metadata updated

2025-11-07