EFFECTS OF PETROLEUM OPERATIONS IN ALASKAN WETLANDS: A CRITIQUE by Roger A. Post Technical Report No. 90-3 Alaska Department of Fish & Game Division of Habitat Effects of Petroleum Operations in Alaskan Wetlands: A Critique by Roger A. Post Technical Report No. 90-3 Frank Rue Director Habitat Division Alaska Department of Fish and Game P.O. BOX3 -2000 Juneau, Alaska 99802 August 1990 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION Management, restoration, and preservation of North American wetlands are currently being debated in the United States with growing support for a national goal of "no net loss" of the country's remaining wetlands. The petroleum industry's view of this issue as it affects arctic-tundra wetlands was expressed in early 1989 when Dr. R.G.B. Senner completed a report entitled Effects of Petroleum Operations in Alarkan Wetlands for ARC0 Alaska, Inc. and BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has found Dr. Senner's report does not accurately portray the ecological and socioeconomic values of arctic-tundra wetlands. Our review of scientific literature related to wetland functions and the ecology of arctic species supports the following findings. Tundra wetlands share many of the attributes of temperate wetlands, and the differences between individual types of temperate wetlands are as great as the differences between temperate and arctic wetlands. The majority of species of arctic wildlife are ultimately conmlled by the availability of their habitats in the same way that wildlife species are controlled in other regions of the globe. Managing wetlands by monitoring fish and wildlife populations is neither feasible nor wise in the face of developmental impacts. Habitat protection is a cost-effective approach for maintaining fish and wildlife populations. ARCTIC-WETLAND FUNCTIONS: COMPARISON WITH OTHER WETLANDS Although quantitative differences in individual functions occur between wetlands regardless of location, arctic wetlands do not qualitatively differ from wetlands in other regions. Arctic wetlands share most of the hydrologic functions characteristic of temperate-zone wetlands. Arctic wetlands generally are not sites of discharge or recharge for subpermafrost aquifers, but suprapermafrost groundwater can influence wetland communities below arctic slopes in ways comparable to aquifer discharge in temperate regions. . The complex of ponds, lakes, tundra, and beaded drainages of the Coastal Plain regulates runoff through storage in the active layer, depression storage, detention, and velocity reduction and by slow release of water to streams over extended periods, similar to temperate wetlands during summer. Tundra vegetation insulates thaw-unstable, ice-rich soils, which prevents thermal erosion; the tundra mat insulates and stabilizes the bottoms of thaw lakes; and emergent aquatic vegetation may reduce wave erosion in large arctic lakes. Arctic-tundra wetlands are reasonably productive and can transform or retain sediment, nutrients, and toxicants similar to many temperate wetlands. Arctic-tundra wetlands inhibit generation of inorganic particulates by maintaining the thermal equilibrium of ice-rich, thaw-unstable soils in the watersheds of tundra systems. . At breakup, streams flood adjacent tundra creating extensive wetland complexes that provide sites for suspended solids to seule, and sediment is trapped by riparian wetlands along large arctic rivers with mountain headwaters. Microbes and plants conmbute to nutrient and contaminant retention or transformation in tundra wetlands since arctic-tundra species are adapted to low temperatures, are biologically active even under harsh conditions, and respond to nutrient input. Tundra ponds show chemical responses to nument input, reach temperatures as high as 16°C, have a high ratio of sediment surface to water volume, contain fine inorganic and organic sediment, and experience wind-driven circulation that oxygenates sediment. Nutrient concentrations may vary by an order of magnitude between adjacent microhabitats, a characteristic ensuring that waterborne nutrients and contaminants contact a variety of potential reaction sites during periods of high water. Net primary production, nutrient export, and food-chain support are important functions of arctic wetlands and are qualitatively similar to those of temperate regions. Tundra production is remarkably high, approximately one-half that of temperate grasslands, and supplies the energy (plant biomass) on which animals exist Nument export is an important function of arctic wetlands. Arctic-tundra wetlands support food chains, both through the herbivore-based trophic system from living plant tissues to rodents and ungulates and their predators and through the detritus-based mphic system from dead plant tissue to invertebrates to shorebirds and their predators. From the standpoint of fish and wildlife resources, the habitat function of wetlands is their preeminent value. In Alaska, subsistence uses of wetlands by Alaska Natives provide an additional reason to value wetland habitats. Species-habitat relationships for arctic wetlands are discussed elsewhere in this critique. Few places on the globe possess the untrammeled expanses of arctic landscapes. These landscapes and the wetlands they contain provide recreation and heritage values. Recreational values include the opportunity to experience solitude, wilderness, and adventure and to view wildlife. River float mps, backpacking (and similar uses), sport hunting, and unreported (estimated) private activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge accounted for an estimated 1,289 person-use days in wetlands of the Arctic Coastal Plain during 1989. The recreational value of arctic wetlands is also represented by their production of wildlife that supports recreational activity elsewhere. THE "VACANT-HOTEL HYPOTHESIS": A MYTH Semer postulates that the availability of arctic-wetland habitats does not conaol animal abundance and believes arctic habitats are not fully stocked with fish and wildlife. We refer to the concept, which we reject, as the "Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis." Since the Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis holds that animal numbers do not decrease as arctic habitat is lost, it requires that factors controlling fish and wildlife populations operate independently of animal density and provides the basis for testing the hypothesis. Population ecology provides general evidence that most or all factors controUing animal populations act in ways influenced by animal densities. Many population ecologists do not accept the existence of density-independent factors. The superabundant resources and lack of density-dependent predation rates assumed by the Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis are unlikely for the majority of predator and prey species inhabiting arctic wetlands. The effects of increased density brought about by habitat loss may differ by species and the dynamics of affected populations and could include reduced birth rates, increased mortality, or emigration to suboptimal habitat. Even if weather were accepted to act in a density-independent fashion on at least some arctic species, the Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis would remain unconfirmed if other factors influenced populations in a density-dependent manner. The majority of the evidence indicates that migratory birds in the Arctic respond to their environment in the same way that birds do elsewhere. Except for several species having long incubation and fledging periods (e.g., tundra swans and loons), variation in the length of the breeding season does not control reproductive success for most waterbirds on the North Slope. For waterbirds nesting only in the Arctic, tundra wetlands are crucial regardless of waterbird densities elsewhere. . Low nest density over the huge area of the Coastal Plain represents large waterfowl production. The Arctic's seasonally-rich wetlands provide stable water levels for waterfowl displaced from the h eReg ion by drought. Despite the importance of habitat loss and other factors operating on waterbird populations outside the Arctic, there is no evidence that these factors alone control their populations. Temtorial behavior in some North Slope shorebird species controls the total number of nests by exclulng surplus individuals from breeding, growth rates of young shorebirds vary related to weather and food availabilty, and predators destroy eggs and young of shorebirds. . Breeding conditions are important determinants of waterfowl populations for arctic-nesting species. The hnibution of shorebird migration routes, migration timing, and wintering areas reduces the probability that catastrophe will simultaneously affect all arctic-nesting species during migration and wintering. . Habitat-conservation efforts in countries supporting overwintering shorebirds should not be discounted or rendered ineffective by allowing unnecessary losses of breeding habitat in the Arctic. Sea ducks, abundant arctic breeders, winter in marine waters; the availability of staging and wintering habitat is not an issue for these species. Tundra is a mosaic of microhabitats with greatly differing prey densities and structural characteristics of significance to waterbirds. Wetlands near the coast of the Beaufort Sea have relatively higher values to some waterfowl and shorebirds than do inland wetlands. Although availability of post-nesting and traditionally used habitats have not been conclusively shown to limit waterfowl populations, displacement of individuals to suboptimal habitats hkely would adversely affect their energy balance and survival. Shorebird use of wetland habitats is affected by fidelity to birth sites and previous nest sites, which may offer advantages to returning birds and argues against the notion that lsplacement of shorebirds has no potential effect on shorebird numbers. Food is a limiting aspect of waterbird habitat in the Arctic. Territoriality allocates limited food resources in waterfowl and loons. Territoriality and the evolution of both a conservative and an opportunistic breeding strategy among shorebirds can be interpreted as evidence of resource competition. It is difficult to reconcile the existence of negative energy budgets in nesting and post-nesting birds with the superabundance of resources required by the Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis. Studies of avian predators provide evidence that the availability of resources found within their habitats and territoriality strongly influence their breeding density, underscoring the importance of habitat availability. The role of food in limiting the abundance of avian predators in arctic-tundra wetlands is clear, most species show strong relationships between breeding density, reproductive output, and prey availability. The availability of nest sites affects breeding densities of predaceous birds such as the peregrine falcon and the gyrfalcon. . Most avian predators breeding in arctic wetlands are territorial, occupy aIl suitable habitat, and exclude surplus individuals from breeding. Evidence from arctic mammals indicates a complex system of biotic interactions that does not support the assumptions of density-independent controls over populations and superabundant resources inherent in the Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis. Lemmings are important herbivores that exhibit density-dependent mortality and reproduction and affect species such as mammalian predators that may not otherwise show obvious limitation by density-dependent factors. Moose occupy riparian wetlands on the North Slope, are almost entirely dependent upon these high-value habitats, and exhibit densitydependent changes in birth rates and death rates in response to their nutritional status. . Population control in caribou is complex and includes density-dependent mechanisms such as predation, nutrition, and social behavior. Muskox populations are controlled in a density-dependent manner by social behavior such as emigration and by the effects of nutrition on the age of first reproduction and conception rate in female muskoxen. Polar bears produce significantly more cubs per den in land dens than those on the sea ice, which is important because female bears surviving to breeding age and entering the breeding population each year approximately equal the annual loss of breeding females in the Beaufon Sea population. Unexploited wolf populations appear to be regulated by the interaction of social factors and nutrition, density-dependent responses of wolves to their environment, in particular to food resources. In unexploited populations adult males may regulate brown bear abundance in a density- dependent manner by killing other bears; however, fragmentation of landscapes used by brown bears may lead to their extirpation because they cannot adapt to large-scale habitat modification and human habitation and require extensive freedom of movement to reach necessary resources. HABITAT-BASED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A RATIONAL ALTERNATIVE TO MEASURING POPULATION-LEVEL IMPACTS Senner believes that regulatory agencies should not require mitigation beyond careful design and siting of oilfield facilities until the cumulative impacts of wetlands fills demonstrably reduce fish and wildlife populations on Alaska's North Slope. We favor offsetting developmental impacts through habitat management. The relative merits of these management systems should be considered in the debate over wetlands policies as applied to arctic-tundra wetlands. Managing the impacts of development on arctic-tundra wetlands by monitoring fish and wildlife populations is not practical for reasons of cost, lack of appropriate indicator species, difficulty of estimating populations, and difficulty of statistically separating multivariate causes of population fluctuation. Incremental wetland loss acts chronically and diffusely to reduce the total area of habitat available, not only to fish and game species used for human consumption but to all components of the biological community, reducing potential maximum populations. Population-based management of wetland fills would shift the burden of proof for habitat protection from the private to the public sector and would be beyond government's current or conceivable fiscal capacility. Natural population fluctuations combined with errors of population estimation reduce the statistical probability of detecting the effects of habitat loss on populations until the losses are dramatic, which would permanently cap populations at the levels where the effects of habitat loss are demonstrated. Allowing large declines in arctic species as tests of impacts of development would unjustifiably risk animal populations. Economics would limit monitoring to at most several "indicator species" representing the herbivore-based and the detritus-based trophic systems; however, potential indicators do not meet suitable selection criteria. Populations of animals existing at the carrying capacities of their environments must decline as wetland habitats are lost because their densitites cannot be increased in remaining habitats. Wetland management based on habitat protection is a rational, cost-effective alternative to population-based management of developmental impacts. Habitat-based management is predicated on identification and protection of high-value habitats so that necessary development can be directed into those areas having less value for fish and wildlife. Gravel fill in arctic wetlands diminishes the areas of natural ecosystems, buries nutrient reservoirs such as organic matter, and may otherwise alter ecosystem character. . Resource managers can maintain arctic ecosystems by identifying significant functions impaired by necessary development, by determining appropriate mitigation to maintain these functions and values, and by ensuring that mitigation procedures are properly and successfully executed by developers. Those who profit from siting development in wetlands would largely bear the costs of habitat management by incorporating required mitigation features in project design and construction. Partial or complete fill removal from abandoned sites increases the probability that adequate soil moisture will be present to promote colonization by native species, restoring at least some of the ecological values lost when the fill was originally placed. . Positive habitat value can be obtained even from out-of-kind compensation or partd restoration as compared to the alternative of sterile gravel pads. TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Acknowledgments xi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Arctic Wetland Functions: Comparison With Other Wetlands 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ongin and Dismbution of Arctic Wetlands 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hydrologic Functions 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Aquifer Discharge and Recharge 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flow Regulation 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erosion Control 14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Water Quality Functions 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sediment Retention 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nument Uptake and Contaminant Removal 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Production and Export Functions 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Net Primary Production 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nutrient Export 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Food-Chain Support 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Habitat Functions 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Recreation and Heritage Functions 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The "Vacant-Hotel Hypothesis": A Myth 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CMication of the Hypothesis 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . Evidence Against the Hypothesis Based on Population Ecology 32 Evidence Against the Hypothesis Based on Shorebird and Waterfowl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ecology in the Arctic 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Length of Breeding Season 37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Factors Outside Alaska 41 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Habitats and Habitat Use in Alaska 45 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Resource Limitations 49 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evidence Against the Hypothesis Based on Avian Predators 53 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Food Resources 54 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Other Resources 59 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Territoriality 60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Evidence Against the Hypothesis Based on Mammals 63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lemmings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Moose 66 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Caribou 67 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Muskox -70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Polar Bear 71 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wolf 72 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brown Bear 73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Summary 76