Energy-sector footprints, subsequent disturbances and footprint reclamation determine the direction and rate of landbird community trajectories in boreal forests

Understanding temporal dynamics of wildlife communities associated with energy-sector footprints is fundamental for land management and restoration. This is especially important in landscapes where footprints intersect with successive disturbances and human interventions, and where wildlife recovery is expected to follow vegetation succession. We monitored bird communities in the Athabasca oil sands region of Alberta, across 34 long-term monitoring stations representing multiple disturbance and reclamation scenarios for 5-14 years. We quantified the rate and direction of temporal dynamics at each station, then evaluated how these dynamics relate to disturbance and reclamation legacies. We hypothesized that, at the local scale, bird community composition would diverge rapidly in areas with higher footprint intensity and successive events that drive changes in vegetation. Temporal dynamics fell into three major trajectories: directional change, stable and convergent dynamics. These dynamics were strongly linked to disturbance and reclamation scenarios. Rapid directional changes were associated with higher footprint intensity, subsequent events and highly dynamic vegetation. Stable and convergent dynamics were observed in landscapes where energy-sector footprints and successive disturbances were limited. Successive events, including wildfire and reclamation, exerted substantial effects on temporal dynamics. Wildfire caused directional change, whereas effects of reclamation were varied. Bird communities at older reclaimed sites showed limited temporal variability, while younger reclaimed sites showed marked variation in species composition. We present a conceptual framework that uses spatio-temporal monitoring of communities and highlights that temporal dynamics of birds are influenced by both initial forest clearing and subsequent events; thus, understanding how each scenario should be managed is essential for restoration.