@article {54063,
	title = {The state of existing empirical data and scientific knowledge on habitat-species relationships for wildlife that occupy aquatic habitats with a focus on the boreal region of Alberta},
	year = {2011},
	note = {CEMA Contract No. 2009-0049 RWG.  },
	pages = {121 pages },
	institution = {Cumulative Environmental Management Association },
	address = {Fort McMurray, AB },
	abstract = {This report examines recent reclamation efforts in aquatic habitats relevant to the Alberta mineable oil sands region, and relationships between habitat variables and species of interest in the region. This was accomplished through assessment of literature and datasets for wetland design, attributes of naturally-occurring wetlands (e.g. size, depth, etc.), and species-habitat associations for a set of indicator species for the mineable oil sands region. In addition, proof-of-concept empirical habitat modelling was conducted for one species to demonstrate the utility of this approach for design of reclaimed habitats. The quality and quantity of both literature and datasets were extremely variable. Data on species-habitat associations collected in a statistically-rigorous manner were relatively sparse, though enough exist to initiate data-based empirical models for many indicator species considered in this report. Sufficient literature exists to inform expert-based Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models for the remainder. Data on existing wetlands in the mineable oil sands region was also variable, though basic information can be obtained for many types of habitat in the region. Unfortunately, these data are sometimes only in paper form in reports. However, it should be possible to build a dataset that would provide guidance on naturally-occurring wetlands in a boreal context relevant to the mineable oil sands region. There are also numerous papers on different types of wetland reclamation, though relatively few of them are from Alberta. However, it should be possible to extract the relevant lessons from this body of work and apply it to the Alberta oil sands context. Development of a guidance document for design of wildlife habitat for aquatic reclamation is the next step in the overall project.
},
	keywords = {Alberta Innovates, amphibians, AOSTRA, aquatic environment, ARC, birds, CEMA, habitat, mammals, river, stream, wetlands},
	url = {http://library.cemaonline.ca/ckan/dataset/14659244-f32e-4509-8699-c99b1fd75903/resource/307e1c0c-906d-4255-985f-494baab215ca/download/rwg20090049.pdf},
	author = {Eaton, B. and Fisher, J. T.}
}
