NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Tags: physical sciences, vegetation, caribou, fire ecology, forest regrowth

Objective(s): To improve the empirical foundations for predictive caribou habitat mapping within the forested areas of the Taiga Plains and Taiga Shield Ecoregions in the Northwest Territories.

Project Description: The objective is to improve the empirical foundations for predictive caribou habitat mapping within the forested areas of the Taiga Plains and Taiga Shield Ecoregions in NWT, roughly south of Great Bear Lake. A network of long-term study plots will be established across a range of fire characteristics and vegetation types, where the research team will measure the rate and direction of forest and caribou forage recovery following fire. The sample design will enable the team to model how these rates and directions vary with initial conditions, fire severity and other factors. The design will exploit historical data (e.g. air photos and fire history maps), forest resource inventory maps (where available), and caribou collar data, and will include revisits of past survey locations where possible. The survey design and field protocols will facilitate future re-measurements. Site selection: The research team will establish 5-8 plots within each combination of fire age, severity and vegetation type, and in areas with data on caribou use where possible. The team will revisit previously sampled burn sites to measure rates of habitat recovery. Plots will be geo-referenced at high precision and marked in the field. Sites will be selected based on: 1) fire age using fire history maps: new (2014), young (< 10 years old), medium (10-40 years), and old (> 40 years); 2) fire severity categorized by direct measures (2014 fires), satellite products (young fires) or surrogates such as modelled fire intensity; 3) burn patch size estimated from patch area and distance to nearest unburned edge 4) vegetation or landcover class, and Forest Inventory or pre-fire air photos where they exist. Sampling will include all dominant forest types and non-forested bogs and fens; and, 5) proximity to communities, roads, and water to facilitate access. The research team will relate burn characteristics described above to: 1) vegetation composition and abundance, soil characteristics, and depth to frost table; 2) direction and rate of forest recovery: within the 2014 burns we will count and identify tree seedlings in randomly placed plots. In all sites, we will establish forest inventory plots to relate ground data to remotely sensed products; and, 3) caribou forage including the relative abundance and biomass of plants and lichens (arboreal and ground-dwelling) used by caribou and other ungulates such as moose, and growth at a small number of sites to estimate productivity of forage species. Last summer the research team employed community members in Gameti, Wekweeti and Kakisa to assist with field sampling efforts. The research team will do the same in the coming year for communities close to major sampling locations. Finally, the team engage regularly in community events in order to share information about the project as well as receive feedback from the communities. The research team fully intend to continue in this level of community involvement in the coming year(s). The research team are committed to sharing study information with Northwest Territories communities. In the coming year the team will working closely with the community of Kakisa through the Community Researcher in this project, to share the results of this study as well as contribute to community-driven initiatives focused on fire ecology. The projects CIMP funding has a budget for community events; the team will work with the community partners to identify opportunities where funding can be contributed to an existing community event thereby facilitating the opportunity to participate in the event while also sharing information about this research through research displays and/or presentations. The research team are working closely with the Wek’èezhìi Renewable Resources Board, which has led to two news items on their website in the past year helping to broadly communicate the project. In the coming summer the team will also be live-tweeting details of the field work thereby providing a window in to the field research process for interested individuals. Finally, the research team will present the results on request for communities or government as well as at the 2016 CIMP results workshop. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 8, 2016 to September 9, 2016.