Regeneration on Linear Developments Subject to Wildfires in a Zone of Continuous Permafrost.

With assistance from the Yukon Oil and Gas Branch, EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. developed and submitted a proposal to the Mining and Petroleum Environmental Research Group (MPERG) to conduct a study of vegetation regeneration on linear developments subject to wildfires, specifically on and in the vicinity of the winter access road leading to test well site K- 58, beginning in the first post-fire growing season. The study site was located in sub-arctic, black spruce (Picea mariana) dominated forest in a zone of continuous permafrost in the area of Eagle Plains, YT. The study examined vegetation composition and abundance, as well as soil and permafrost conditions, in four types of linear disturbances, including: 1) burned 30+ year old seismic lines; 2) a burned one-year-old winter road; 3) the same burned one-year-old winter road constructed on an existing, 30+ year old seismic line, and; 4) unburned 30+ year old seismic lines. A total of 73 (200m2) paired vegetation plots were completed within each of the above linear disturbances and adjacent forests. Overall, the vegetation was highly uniform among all types of linear disturbances and undisturbed sites in the study area. Differences in species composition and abundance were most pronounced between the burned and unburned sites, with a greater number of species present and higher vegetation cover in unburned sites. Of the three types of linear disturbances sampled, the combined disturbance of the burned one year old winter road constructed on a 30+ year old seismic line demonstrated the most notable differences in vegetation composition and abundance in comparison with the adjacent forest. In contrast, species composition and abundance in the burned winter road and burned 30+ year old seismic line were more similar to that in adjacent, burned forests. No trends in soil moisture were detected among the various disturbance types. Depth to permafrost was slightly lower in all three linear disturbances, but this difference was not significant. Depth of organic soil was significantly lower in the combined disturbance of the burned one year old winter road constructed on a 30+ year old seismic line, and was significantly higher in the burned winter road, when compared to adjacent, burned forests. Moss depth was significantly higher in unburned than burned sites. In the first post-fire year, this recent burn appears to be the dominant factor affecting vegetation composition and abundance in the study area. Re-vegetation is occurring rapidly on linear disturbances, with the dominant vascular plant species in the unburned, undisturbed forest regenerating across all disturbance types. Because the study was completed in the first post-fire growing season, it was not possible to assess regeneration of black spruce, an important structural species that is not reported to begin to regenerate until several years after a burn. Similarly, it was also not possible to assess lichen re-establishment, an important element of vegetation succession in black spruce forest that also re-establishes later than the first post-fire growing season. Continued monitoring will be required to understand the longer term response of vegetation to fire in linear disturbances.

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated October 20, 2025, 02:22 (UTC)
Created October 20, 2025, 02:22 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Regeneration on Linear Developments Subject to Wildfires in a Zone of Continuous Permafrost.
Description
A description of the dataset.

With assistance from the Yukon Oil and Gas Branch, EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. developed and submitted a proposal to the Mining and Petroleum Environmental Research Group (MPERG) to conduct a study of vegetation regeneration on linear developments subject to wildfires, specifically on and in the vicinity of the winter access road leading to test well site K- 58, beginning in the first post-fire growing season. The study site was located in sub-arctic, black spruce (Picea mariana) dominated forest in a zone of continuous permafrost in the area of Eagle Plains, YT. The study examined vegetation composition and abundance, as well as soil and permafrost conditions, in four types of linear disturbances, including: 1) burned 30+ year old seismic lines; 2) a burned one-year-old winter road; 3) the same burned one-year-old winter road constructed on an existing, 30+ year old seismic line, and; 4) unburned 30+ year old seismic lines. A total of 73 (200m2) paired vegetation plots were completed within each of the above linear disturbances and adjacent forests. Overall, the vegetation was highly uniform among all types of linear disturbances and undisturbed sites in the study area. Differences in species composition and abundance were most pronounced between the burned and unburned sites, with a greater number of species present and higher vegetation cover in unburned sites. Of the three types of linear disturbances sampled, the combined disturbance of the burned one year old winter road constructed on a 30+ year old seismic line demonstrated the most notable differences in vegetation composition and abundance in comparison with the adjacent forest. In contrast, species composition and abundance in the burned winter road and burned 30+ year old seismic line were more similar to that in adjacent, burned forests. No trends in soil moisture were detected among the various disturbance types. Depth to permafrost was slightly lower in all three linear disturbances, but this difference was not significant. Depth of organic soil was significantly lower in the combined disturbance of the burned one year old winter road constructed on a 30+ year old seismic line, and was significantly higher in the burned winter road, when compared to adjacent, burned forests. Moss depth was significantly higher in unburned than burned sites. In the first post-fire year, this recent burn appears to be the dominant factor affecting vegetation composition and abundance in the study area. Re-vegetation is occurring rapidly on linear disturbances, with the dominant vascular plant species in the unburned, undisturbed forest regenerating across all disturbance types. Because the study was completed in the first post-fire growing season, it was not possible to assess regeneration of black spruce, an important structural species that is not reported to begin to regenerate until several years after a burn. Similarly, it was also not possible to assess lichen re-establishment, an important element of vegetation succession in black spruce forest that also re-establishes later than the first post-fire growing season. Continued monitoring will be required to understand the longer term response of vegetation to fire in linear disturbances.
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2011-04-04
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License
License used to access the dataset.
Open Government Licence - Yukon
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/48db5cb9-c4bd-4b72-96b5-ebcc312f5f9f
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
Government of Yukon | Gouvernement du Yukon
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Yukon Geological Survey
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
[email protected]
Author
Author of the dataset.
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

0 Comments

Please login or register to comment.