Natural Resources Canada scientist Jaime Pinzon will be conducting fieldwork at the recently opened Grande Prairie Boreal Wetland Centre as part of a research study on ecosystem restoration.
Pinzon and his team who will be exploring environmental and biodiversity responses to soil mounding as a means to improve the return of tree cover following the recent development in the area to be used for natural resources.
Visitors to the site will see disturbances, known as “seismic lines,” created for the experiment, that will be treated and planted with local tree species, which Pinzon says is beneficial as most seismic lines in peatlands fail to recover naturally.
“Human intervention is needed to aid in their recovery,” he says. “Mounding has been widely used over the last 15-20 years, but given the slow recovery of peatlands to disturbance, evidence of success is still in development.”
Researchers suggest that the use of mounding in the area will provide favourable conditions for trees to survive, and will continue to provide adequate forest cover along the seismic line.
At the end of the experiment, Pinzon says long-term monitoring will be required to help researchers better understand the impacts of the treatment and test its effectiveness.
