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<\/a>A Colorado Mesa University researcher and undergraduate assistants collect soil samples in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. Credit, \u200bTamera Minnick<\/i>.<\/p><\/div>\n
The authors sampled two undisturbed reference sites and eight reclaimed or abandoned natural gas well pads in Rio Blanco County, Colorado. They found that none of the oil and gas well pads included in the study had returned to a reference, or pre-drilling, condition, even those that had had 20 to 50 years to recover.<\/p>\n
When a well pad is built, the topsoil and lower soil layers are removed and stored in piles in order to create a level work surface for drilling wells. Today\u2019s well pads, often consisting of dozens of wells per pad, may require removing soil from an area of 3-10 acres. When drilling is completed, current reclamation standards require oil and gas companies to replace the soil and reestablish plants. However, the stored soils are now thoroughly mixed or homogenized and have lost the patchy pattern of soil nutrients that existed before the well pad was built.<\/p>\n
\u201cSagebrush modifies its habitat to create patchy soils that make the habitat more resilient and even better for supporting sagebrush and all the other plants and animals that depend upon this important ecosystem,\u201d said Richard Alward, Principal Ecologist with Aridlands Natural Resource Consulting, and the study\u2019s coauthor.<\/p>\n
Other researchers have documented that sagebrush shrubs trap decaying organic matter, moisture, and nutrients in the soil beneath \u00a0their canopies, creating \u201cislands of fertility\u201d in sagebrush habitat, which Minnick and Alward confirmed. The patchy pattern of nutrients favors the recovery of sagebrush, creating a positive feedback that reinforces the persistence of the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that some reclaimed well pads had total plant cover that was similar to the reference sites, a current requirement for reclamation, but those plants were primarily grasses or rabbitbrush. These species do not produce patches of high and low soil organic matter; instead the soils are much more uniform. This uniformity may ultimately make it more difficult to reestablish sagebrush \u2013 and to restore conditions favorable to diverse wildlife species.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be a conflict between short- and long-term restoration goals, for example, between immediate erosion control versus restoring wildlife habitat,\u201d said Minnick. \u201cFor the long-term stability of these ecosystems, it is critical to establish the natural feedbacks between plants and soil. And in this ecosystem, that means establishing big sagebrush. Wildlife habitat goals cannot be realized by merely establishing grasses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Semi-arid and arid ecosystems are notoriously difficult to restore after heavy disturbance. Researchers from Idaho to Nevada, from Australia to Israel, have been identifying techniques that improve the chances of restoration success in these dry areas. These techniques work to promote soil patchiness, and positive feedbacks between plants and soils, in a process termed \u201cautogenic\u201d restoration.<\/p>\n
The region where this study was conducted is considered \u201csemi-arid\u201d since it typically records less than 11 inches of rain per year. The researchers studied 10 sites on public lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Rio Blanco County, western Colorado, approximately 55 miles north of Grand Junction.\u00a0 This area has seen periodic, and sometimes very intense, oil and gas exploration over the last several decades. The soils of eight well pads that had been completed at various times since the 1960s were compared to soils at two nearby undisturbed sagebrush sites.<\/p>\n
Successful restoration of oil and gas disturbances generates many benefits \u2013 to hunters and conservationists concerned with wildlife habitat, to oil and gas operators who desire continued access to these resources, to the public who reap benefits such as clean water and recreation opportunities, and to land managers who are responsible for\u00a0 maintaining the land for multiple uses.<\/p>\n
Sagebrush ecosystems provide important habitat for many wildlife species in the western United States, including mule deer, pronghorn, elk, pygmy rabbits, golden eagles, and greater sage-grouse (the latter is a species being considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for protection under the Endangered Species Act). Improved habitat restoration may decrease pressure for federal intervention to protect this iconic bird.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nPlant\u2013soil feedbacks and the partial recovery of soil spatial patterns on abandoned well pads in a sagebrush shrubland<\/strong>. (2015) Tamera J. Minnick and Richard D. Alward. Ecological Applications <\/em>25(1), 3-10. http:\/\/www.esajournals.org\/doi\/full\/10.1890\/13-1698.1<\/a> (Open Access).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sagebrush ecosystem recovery appears to be hobbled by loss of soil complexity when topsoil is remixed at oil and gas development sites, losing the \u201cislands of fertility\u201d associated with mature shrubs. Related news stories: \u201cSage Advice: Couple\u2019s research plants seeds for reclamation of sagebrush.\u201d Dennis Webb. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel,\u00a0Monday, February 2, 2015. \u201cState should improve reclamation process.\u201d Editorial.\u00a0The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":10922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33,1730,1219,1731,58,1658],"class_list":["post-10905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-ecological-applications","tag-new-mexico","tag-oil-and-gas-development","tag-reclamation","tag-restoration","tag-sagebrush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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