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Skip to Search Results- 1Annich, Natasha C
- 1Beck, Elizabeth M
- 1Cassidy, Ffion Louise
- 1Choo-Yin, Yemayá Yue
- 1Droghini, Amanda
- 1Fagua Gonzalez, Giovanny
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Fall 2014
Canada’s boreal forest is the breeding ground for some 288 species of resident and migratory birds. Approximately 65% of the species that are currently of highest conservation priority in the boreal region are associated with wetlands and riparian areas. Although estimates vary with scale and...
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Fall 2014
The oil sands landscape in northern Alberta is interspersed with large tailings ponds that hold wastewater from bitumen mining and extraction processes. Recent monitoring results indicate that annually many thousands of birds, mostly migrating waterfowl, land on the ponds associated with this...
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Evaluation of Radar and Cameras as Tools for Automating the Monitoring of Waterbirds at Industrial Sites
DownloadFall 2014
Conflict occurs between people and birds at industrial sites around the world, where birds can endanger human lives (e.g. airports) and where bird populations are endangered by human activities (e.g. wind farms). Mitigating these conflicts requires accurate detection of birds and measures of...
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Spring 2014
The worldwide biodiversity crisis has intensified the need to better understand how biodiversity and human disturbance are related. Yet this relationship lacks both consensus in theoretical expectations and consistency in observed empirical patterns. I present one of the largest extent studies...
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Spring 2013
This study assessed the geographic distribution of mercury in water, and biota of the Athabasca River, and in snow and vegetation in its watershed. Mercury in the snowpack was significantly elevated within 46km of oil sands development relative to greater distances. Mercury was significantly...
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Monitoring Macrophage Immune Gene Expression Profiles as an Early Indicator System for Examining the Bioactivity of Oil Sands Process Affected Waters
DownloadFall 2021
Oil sands process-affected waters (OSPW) are by-products of bitumen (i.e. oil) extraction from the oil sands located in northern Alberta. These large volumes of water are held in tailings ponds and cannot be released due to their potential toxic effects. Overall, tailings ponds and mining...
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Fall 2017
Leafrollers moths are one of the most ecologically and economically important groups of herbivorous insects. These Lepidoptera are an ideal model for exploring the drivers that modulate the processes of diversification over time. This thesis analyzes the evolution of Choristoneura Lederer, a well...
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Reclamation of wetland habitat in the Alberta oil sands: generating assessment targets using boreal marsh vegetation communities
DownloadFall 2010
Thousands of hectares of wetlands are being destroyed by oil sands mining in Alberta, and the industry must undertake wetland reclamation to compensate for these losses. Wetland vegetation has developed at some previously mined sites, however reclamation is thus far exploratory, and limited in...
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Snowfall, travel speed, and seismic lines: The effects of snow conditions on wolf movement paths in boreal Alberta
DownloadSpring 2016
In the winter, snow can present a major challenge to large mammals by impeding locomotion, limiting food availability, and imposing additional energetic costs during travel. This thesis examines the effects of snow conditions on the fine-scale movement patterns of grey wolves (Canis lupus) in a...
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Spring 2014
Lankau, Hedwig Erika Gertraude
I investigated how songbirds respond to seismic lines as the vegetation cover on lines regenerates and how long seismic line effects on songbirds persist. I found that line age was poorly correlated with natural vegetation recovery and that after an initial increase in recovery after 20 years the...