With up to 20,000 species of insects throughout Alberta the opportunities for entomological study are immense. An entomological reconnaissance study of the Syncrude Lease #17 area was required to gain preliminary data and to examine the potential of insects as biological monitors of environmental changes resulting from the Syncrude development. In 1974, a three week field reconnaissance study of terrestrial insects occurring on Syncrude Lease #17 and its environs, in the Athabasca Tar Sands of Northern Alberta, was carried out. Various sampling methods were employed in disturbed and undisturbed stands of different boreal forest tree types and in an area cleared of trees for mining purposes. The results obtained suggest that further study of certain insects may give an early indication of possible environmental damage. These insects are a dung beetle, Aphodius sp. (Scarabaeidae: Coleoptera), two species of March flies (Bibionidae : Diptera) and several species of ground beetles (Carabidae : Coleoptera). A future sampling plan can be based on the quantitative (soil sampling) data.
Related Resources
Reindeer and Caribou: Health and Disease
Resource Date:
2018
Natural Regeneration on Seismic Lines Influences Movement Behaviour of Wolves and Grizzly Bears
Resource Date:
April
2018
A Synthesis of Three Decades of Eco-Hydrological Research at Scotty Creek, NWT, Canada
Resource Date:
August
2018
The Impact of a Black Spruce (Picea mariana) Plantation on Carbon Exchange in a Cutover Peatland in Western Canada
Resource Date:
January
2018
Developing Allometric Equations for Estimating Shrub Biomass in a Boreal Fen
Resource Date:
September
2018
Was this helpful?
|