Beyond habitat loss: How landscape configuration drives mammal distributions across petroleum extraction landscapes

Abstract

Anthropogenic development alters the composition and configuration of landscapes, but the effects of landscape configurations on wildlife are rarely investigated because configuration is often considered influential only beyond upper thresholds of habitat loss. In the Oil Sands Region (OSR) of Alberta, Canada—a vast area of the north-western boreal forest—petroleum extraction impacts boreal mammals but the ecological mechanisms underlying these impacts remain largely unknown, particularly in the context of the novel landscape configurations characteristic of this region. We investigated how the configuration and composition of landscapes resulting from development in the OSR influence seven mammal species. We sampled species occurrences using camera traps deployed across a gradient of low and high disturbance landscapes; generalized linear models relate species occurrences to measures of configuration and composition. Despite only ~16% of total habitat loss in the OSR, landscape configuration was an important predictor of occurrence for multiple species. Fisher, coyote and wolf occurrences were best predicted by models representing landscape configuration, while lynx and white-tailed deer were best predicted by landscape composition. Landscapes configured into small patches with high concentrations of anthropogenic feature edges (i.e. dense seismic lines in grid formations) were associated with greater wolf occurrences, likely due to enhanced landscape connectivity. Coyote occurred more frequently, and fishers less frequently, in small, dispersed habitat patches. Synthesis and applications. Landscape policy and management should mitigate habitat loss in anthropogenically disturbed landscapes but also consider resulting configurations from development. Complex ecological impacts are not well represented in the simple quantitative measures of disturbance currently employed: managing both composition and configuration is necessary to conserve species. In petroleum extraction regions, the arrangement of habitat patches into dense grid-patterned linear feature networks redistributes species across landscapes, differentially impacting each species. This nuanced understanding of landscapes will inform more effective conservation strategies to support diverse wildlife populations among development.