Plant community recovery to reference conditions on certified reclaimed wellpads of grasslands often does not occur over time, as the initial disturbance on these sites moves them into an alternative successional state. Though this is in part explained by altered soil conditions on grassland wellpad sites, there is uncertainty as to how lichen communities respond to reclamation initiatives and what effect the vascular plant community has on their recovery. Oil and gas development in Alberta has a significant impact on Alberta’s Natural Regions, including the Dried Mixed Grasslands of Southern Alberta. The Prairie Region covers 24% of Alberta’s land area, and human disturbance, including oil and gas development, can be found in over 63% of this area (ABMI, 2016). This impact increases every year, though only 1.4% of this region is protected (ABMI, 2016). Therefore, reclamation has an important role to play in reversing the impacts of industrial disturbance on both vascular and non-vascular plant communities in grasslands.
Though reclamation criteria have changed measurably in the past 30 years, research has shown that both old and new criteria don’t sufficiently allow well pad sites to return to their original community composition and functioning with time (Lupardus et al., 2020). Oil and gas development alters the soil, making it more alkaline, salty, and compact, which affects drainage and nutrient cycling, and thus the ability of native species to return to these reclaimed sites (Lupardus et al., 2020). Introduced and non-native species are often found in high abundance on reclaimed sites where the soil has drastically changed from reference conditions, causing them to outcompete native species (Lupardus et al., 2020). This is especially true for lichens, which are negatively affected by increasing plant cover and diversity because of limitations in light, water, or changes to soil conditions (Cárdenas-Henao and Stanton, 2024).
To promote true recovery of wellpad sites, new reclamation techniques must be created. These techniques need to address not only the recovery of wildlife habitat and vascular plant communities, but also the recovery of non-vascular plants such as lichens, which play important roles in overall ecosystem functioning, like biogeochemical cycling and soil stability (Sun et al., 2025). Because some species recover faster than others, and environmental factors can change drastically in the years post-reclamation, long-term monitoring and adaptive management are essential to ensure ecosystem recovery (Prangel et al. 2025). The findings of this project will help decision-makers and reclamation practitioners to better understand how lichens, graminoids, and forbs are recovering after disturbance, so that new monitoring and management protocols can be created. Techniques should be specific to the soil and climatic conditions of dried mixed grasslands, how they change through succession, and how lichens interact with other vascular species in native sites, as vascular plants are the fastest to recover after disturbance, limiting resources for other slower-recovering species like lichens (Prangel et al. 2025). This project will also shed light on these relationships so multiple species groups can be included in monitoring and post-disturbance grasslands management (Prangel et al. 2025).
With this in mind, the objectives of this project are:
To examine general community recovery trajectories among the lichens, graminoids, and forbs of Alberta’s Southern Grasslands and identify which groups of sites are doing better than others. Then, I can identify possible factors that are preventing or facilitating recovery for these plant families.
To take a closer look at the Community Recovery Trajectories for Native Graminoids, Forbs, and Lichens, learning more about the composition of these communities on different sample locations and at different age classes, so that I can narrow down how they are recovering from disturbances over time and the effects of the current reclamation practices on these communities' recovery.
Finally, I will look at the role of invasives as a potential cause of compromised recovery for native graminoids, forbs, and lichens to further demonstrate how they interact in grasslands post-disturbance and provide recommendations for how future reclamation practices can better account for these relationships when planning for recovery.