Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Caribou relevant environmental changes around the Ekati Diamond Mine measured in 2015 Wenjun Chen 1 , Sylvain G. Leblanc 1 , H. Peter White 1 , Brian Milakovic 2 , Harry O’Keefe 3 , Bruno Croft 4 , Anne Gunn 5 , and John Boulanger 6 1 CCRS-NRCan 2 ERM-Rescan Environmental Services Ltd. 3 Dominion Diamond Corporation 4 ENR, GNWT 5 CARMA 6 Integrated Ecological Research Ltd.
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 600 Background Bathurst caribou population (,000) 500 How might mining 400 operations have 300 impacted the 200 Bathurst caribou? 100 0 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015 Year
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Knowledge gap TK study (Mackenzie et al. 2013) • Caribou migration routes deflected away from the mines probably due to seeing mining activities or hearing the noises • Skinny caribou or abnormal smells and materials in caribou meat, liver, or the hide linings probably related to changes in caribou forage and quality of water and air A zone of influence (ZOI) study by Boulanger et al. (2012) • Size around the Ekati-Diavik using caribou presence dataset • A potential mechanism using the spatial distribution of the total suspended particles, simulated with an atmospheric transport and dispersion model (Rescan, 2006) Key knowledge gap • Lack of direct measurements about the caribou relevant environmental changes caused by mining operations
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Objectives To quantitatively measure environmental changes around the Ekati Diamond Mine, by means of in-situ surveys and satellite remote sensing. Specifically to address the following questions: • Exactly from how far away can caribou clearly see mining operations (e.g., the vehicles driving on a mining road, or the buildings and the elevated waste piles in a camp)? • From how far away might caribou hear noises caused by mining operations? • What are the spatial extents of air pollutions (e.g., dusts, PM 2.5 ) around mining operations? • How the air pollutions might have influenced caribou forage quality?
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Study area and field measurements • > 100 sites around Ekati Diamond Mine • Filed surveys during August 13-23, 2015 • Variables measured: visibility, noise, soil pH, vegetation % cover and mean height, dust on foliage, spectral reflectance
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Preliminary results • Visibility of mining operations (e.g., trucks in a mining haul road, buildings and waste pile in a mining camp) • Extent of cumulative dust influence quantifying using soil PH measurements • Impacts of air pollutions on caribou forage around mining operations
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Visibilities of mining operations - method Probability of a clear view of a mining operation in a distance range (e.g., 100 to 200 m) quantified using site visual observations or digital photos. For example, 8 clear view sites out of 10 within the range would give a probability of 80%.
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 2.0 y = -11.71x + 1176.6 R 2 = 0.7831, n = 9, p = 0.0015 (visibility = 1,177 ± 250 m, on 1.5 the basis of survey at 116 sites, with bin size = 100 m) Distance (km) 1.0 0.5 0.0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Probability of seeing a vehicle on a mining road (%)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 10 y = -58.082x + 6472.2 9 R 2 = 0.6926, n = 14, p = 0.0002 8 (visibility = 6,472 ± 1,592 m, on the basis of survey at 177 sites, 7 with bin size = 500 m) Distance (km) 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Probability of seeing mine camp/waste pile (%)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Summary & next steps: visibility & noise • The visibility of a vehicle on a mining road by a caribou was 1177 ± 250 m, derived from 117 site observations. The visibility of buildings and waste piles was 6472 ± 1592 m, on the basis of survey at 177 sites • More site observations, better DEM data, and UV photos for improving the accuracy for quantifying caribou’s visibility of vehicles in a road or a mining camp • Caribou’s visibilities of other mining operations (e.g. aircrafts) not surveyed. • Not enough noise measurements to make a credible quantification of the zone of noise influence; a next year’s focus
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Extent of cumulative dust influence - method Year-round dust deposition measurements at 30, 100,1000 m • Advantage: direct measurement, accurate, detail of temporal variation Disadvantage: sample size n ≤ 3, statistically less meaningful for quantifying the extent; time consuming, not suitable for short-term survey Alternative method: the study area has no main stream or river, and thus soil is the main receiver of dust accumulation. If dust depositions would significantly alter the properties of soil (e.g., pH), then soil pH measurements might be used to quantify the extent.
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 10 Roadside 9 8 7 6 5 4 Soil pH 3 Sable Haul Road Fox Haul Road Misery Haul Road 10 9 Far field sites 8 7 6 5 4 3 AQ35 AQ48 AQ107 AQ109 AQ113 AQ114
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Soil solutions from sites of different distances from a mining haul road: 5, 30, 50, 100, 250, 500, 750, 1000 m
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 9 y = -0.461ln(x) + 7.5232 R² = 0.8397, p = 9.7x10 -43 , n = 105 8 7 Soil PH 6 5 4 3 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 Distance from the Misery Haul Road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 10 y = -0.562ln(x) + 8.047 9 R² = 0.8694, p = 1.9x10 -38 , n = 85 8 7 Soil PH 6 5 4 3 0.1 1 10 100 1000 Distance from the Sable Haul Road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 10 y = -0.49ln(x) + 7.4658 9 R ² = 0.73, p = 1.1x10 -52 , n = 180 8 7 Soil PH 6 5 4 3 0.1 1 10 100 1000 Distance from the Fox Haul Road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Dust vs. organic material experiment 7 7 Adding dust Adding dust 6 6 Soil pH Soil pH 5 5 Adding organic material Adding organic material 4 4 3 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Mass ratio of dust to organic material Mass ratio of dust to organic material
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Summary & next steps: air pollutions • Near field and far field soil pH gradients can be used to quantify the extent of cumulative dust influence: 1760 ± 469 m from the Misery Road, 1220 ± 290 m from the Sable Road, 1080 ± 278 m from the Fox Road • The difference in the extent may related to road history: Misery Pit in full operation since 2003 except 2007-2013; Fox Pit in full operation in 2003 but stopped in early 2014; Pigeon Pit (Sable road) in full operation since the middle of 2014 • Dusts and PM 2.5 differ in terms of sources of origin, chemical composition, pH, spatial distribution, and ecological impacts. Combined as TSP or measured separately? • PM 2.5 remote sensing & measurements, a next year’s focus • More pH measurements in the distance range of 0.5-2.5 km
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Impacts of air pollutions on caribou forage - method
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Lichen cover on non-boulder 60 land in a near field site (%) y = 2.6447Ln(x) - 1.8315 50 R 2 = 0.1964 40 30 20 10 0 1 10 100 1000 10000 Distance from a nearest mining haul road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Vascular plant cover on non-boulder 100 90 land at a near field site (%) 80 70 60 50 40 30 y = -2.922454ln(x) + 94.828466 20 R² = 0.160593 10 0 1 10 100 1000 10000 Distance from a nearest mining haul road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 70 60 Leaf biomass (g m -2 ) 50 40 30 20 y = -0.338ln(x) + 41.377 R² = 0.0037 10 0 1 10 100 1000 10000 Distance from a mining road (m)
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS 12 Dust on foliage (NTU/g leaves/100 ml) y = -0.9364Ln(x) + 6.835 10 R 2 = 0.299, p-value = 0.0018, n = 30 8 Dwarf birch measured before rains 6 4 2 0 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 Distance from a mining road
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Greenness changes during 1985-2011 detected using Landsat time series
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Summary & next steps: impacts on caribou forage The impacts of air pollutions on caribou forage are complex: – Near the mining roads, increased vascular plant % cover but not in leaf biomass, probably due to the increase in the amount of dusts on foliage limiting plant growth – Reduced lichen cover near the roads; causes need further investigation More remote sensing (high resolution, hyperspectral, time series) and field surveys needed to reduce uncertainties
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing - ESS Acknowledgement • NWT CIMP • Dominion Diamond Corporation (Harry O'Keefe, Laura Corey, Tom Jeffery, Matt Hoover, Cody Drygeese, Jeff Mantla, Eli Nasogaluak) • ENR-GNWT (Jan Adamczewski, Andrea Patenaude, Dean Cluff) • NRCan (Anumeet Garcha, Robert Frraser)
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