https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2021.2004
Assessing the potential environmental factors affecting cladoceran assemblage composition in arsenic-contaminated lakes near abandoned silver mines
Submitted: 19 January 2021
Accepted: 17 April 2021
Published: 17 May 2021
Accepted: 17 April 2021
Abstract Views: 739
PDF: 294
Supplementary: 77
HTML: 10
Supplementary: 77
HTML: 10
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
Silver mining has a long history in Cobalt (Ontario, Canada), and it has left a complex environmental legacy where many lakes are contaminated with arsenic-rich mine tailings. In this exploratory survey, we examined subfossil Cladocera remains in the surface sediments of 22 lakes in the abandoned mining region to assess which environmental variables may be influencing the recent assemblage structure. Further, using a “top-bottom” paleolimnological approach, we compared the recent (top) and older (bottom) assemblages from a subset of 16 lakes to determine how cladoceran composition has changed in these lakes. Our regional survey suggests that the cladoceran assemblages in the Cobalt area are primarily structured by differences in lake depth, while site-specific limnological characteristics, including those related to past mining activities, may have limited roles in shaping the recent cladoceran compositions. The top-bottom paleolimnological analysis suggests that the cladoceran assemblages have changed in most lakes around Cobalt, however the magnitude and nature of changes varied across the study sites. As with most regional biological surveys, the responses to historical mining activities were not uniform across all sites, which further emphasizes the importance of considering site-specific limnological characteristics and multiple environmental stressors when assessing the impacts of mining pollution.
Adamczuk M, 2014. Niche separation by littoral-benthic Chydoridae (Cladocera, Crustacea) in a deep lake – potential drivers of their distribution and role in littoral-pelagic coupling. J. Limnol. 73:884.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2014.884
Adrian R, Wilhelm S, Gerten D, 2006. Life-history traits of lake plankton species may govern their phenological response to climate warming. Glob. Change Biol. 12:652–661.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01125.x
Amsinck SL, Strzelczak A, Bjerring R, Landkildehus F, Lauridsen TL, Christoffersen K, Jeppesen E, 2006. Lake depth rather than fish planktivory determines cladoceran community structure in Faroese lakes – evidence from contemporary data and sediments. Freshwater Biol. 51:2124–2142.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2006.01627.x
Armstrong Z, Kurek J, 2019. Sensitivity and response of low-nutrient lakes to post twentieth century environmental change in New Brunswick, Canada. J. Paleolimnol. 61:85–98.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-018-0046-8
Arnott SE, Azan S, Ross A, 2017 Calcium decline reduces population growth rates of zooplankton in field mesocosms. Can. J. Zool. 95:323–333.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2016-0105
Birks HJB, 2010. Numerical methods for the analysis of diatom assemblage datam p. 23–54. In: J.P. Smol and E.F. Stoermer (eds.), The Diatoms: Applications for the Environmental and Earth Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511763175.004
Blanchet FG, Legendre P, Borcard D, 2008. Forward selection of explanatory variables. Ecology 89:2623–2632.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/07-0986.1
Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), 2001. Canadian Water Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Aquatic Life: Arsenic. Updated in: Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines, 1999. Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, Winnipeg.
Carter JL, Schindler DE, 2012. Responses of zooplankton populations to four decades of climate warming in lakes of Southwestern Alaska. Ecosystems 15:1010–1026.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-012-9560-0
Chen G, Shi H, Tao J, Chen L, Liu Y, Lei G, Liu X, Smol JP, 2015. Industrial arsenic contamination causes catastrophic changes in freshwater ecosystems. Sci. Rep. 5:17419.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17419
Crins WJ, Gray PA, Uhlig PWC, Wester MC, 2009. The ecosystem of Ontario, Part 1: Ecozones and ecoregions. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough, Ontario, Inventory, Monitoring and Assessment, SIB TER IMA TR-01.
Davidson TA, Sayer CD, Perrow M, Bramm M, Jeppesen E, 2010. The simultaneous inference of zooplanktivorous fish and macrophyte density from sub-fossil cladoceran assemblages: a multivariate regression tree approach. Freshwater Biol. 55:546–564.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2008.02124.x
DeSellas AM, Paterson AM, Sweetman JN, Smol JP, 2008. Cladocera assemblages from the surface sediments of south-central Ontario (Canada) lakes and their relationships to measured environmental variables. Hydrobiologia 600:105–119.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9180-4
Dumaresq CG, 1993. The occurrence of arsenic and heavy metal contamination from natural and anthropogenic sources in the Cobalt area of Ontario. MSc Dissertation, Carleton University.
Dumaresq C, 2007. Canada’s mining heritage – balancing the heritage preservation with the environment, health and safety. Mining and the Environment IV Conference, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Environment Canada, 2012. Metal mining technical guidance for environmental effects monitoring, Government of Canada.
Glew JR, 1988. A portable extruding device for close interval sectioning of unconsolidated core samples. J. Paleolimnol. 1:235–239.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00177769
Glew JR, 1989. A new trigger mechanism for sediment samplers. J. Paleolimnol. 2:241–243.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00195474
Griffiths K, Winegardner AK, Beisner BE, Gregory-Eaves I, 2019. Cladoceran assemblage changes across the Eastern United States as recorded in the sediments from the 2007 National Lakes Assessment, USA. Ecol. Indic. 96:368–382.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.08.061
Hargan KE, Nelligan C, Jeziorski A, Rühland KM, Paterson AM, Keller W, Smol JP, 2016. Tracking the long-term responses of diatoms and cladocerans to climate warming and human influences across lakes of the Ring of Fire in the Far North of Ontario, Canada. J. Paleolimnol. 56:153–172.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-016-9901-7
Harrell FE, 2018. Hmisc: Harrell Miscellaneous. R package version 4.1-1.
Health Canada, 2006. Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality: Guideline Technical Document – Arsenic. Water Quality and Health Bureau, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada, Ottawa.
Jeziorski A, Keller B, Dyer RD, Paterson AM, Smol JP, 2015. Differences among modern-day and historical cladoceran communities from the “Ring of Fire” lake region of northern Ontario: identifying responses to climate warming. Fundam. Appl. Limnol. 186:203–216.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/fal/2015/0702
Jeziorski A, Smol JP, 2016. The ecological impacts of lakewater calcium decline on softwater boreal ecosystems. Environ. Rev. 25:245–253.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/er-2016-0054
Juggins S, 2017. rioja: Analysis of Quaternary Science Data. R package version 0.9-15.1.
Korhola A, Rautio M, 2001. Cladocera and other brachiopod crustaceans, p. 5–41. In: J.P. Smol, H.J.B. Birks and W.M. Last (eds.). Tracking environmental change using lake sediments: Zoological indicators. Kluwer, Dordrecht.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47671-1_2
Korosi JB, Smol JP, 2011. Distribution of cladoceran assemblages across environmental gradients in Nova Scotia (Canada) lakes. Hydrobiologia 663:83–99.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-010-0556-5
Korosi JB, Smol JP, 2012a. An illustrated guide to the identification of Cladoceran subfossils from lake sediments in northeastern North America: part 1—the Daphniidae, Leptodoridae, Bosminidae, Polyphemidae, Holopedidae, Sididae, and Macrothicidae. J. Paleolimnol. 48:571–586.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9632-3
Korosi JB, Smol JP, 2012b. An illustrated guide to the identification of Cladoceran subfossils from lake sediments in northeastern North America: part 2—the Chydoridae. J. Paleolimnol. 48:587–622.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9636-z
Kurek J, Korosi JB, Jeziorski A, Smol JP, 2010. Establishing reliable minimum count sizes for cladoceran subfossils sampled from lake sediments. J. Paleolimnol. 44:603–612.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-010-9440-6
Kurek J, Weeber RC, Smol JP, 2011. Environment trumps predation and spatial factors in structuring cladoceran communities from Boreal Shield lakes. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 68:1408–1419.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/f2011-081
Kwong YTJ, Beauchemin S, Hossain MF, Gould WD, 2007. Transformation and mobilization of arsenic in the historic Cobalt mining camp, Ontario, Canada. J. Geochem. Explor. 92:133–150.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gexplo.2006.08.002
Labaj AL, Kurek J, Jeziorski A, Smol JP, 2015. Elevated metal concentrations inhibit biological recovery of Cladocera in previously acidified boreal lakes. Freshwater Biol. 60:347–359.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.12496
Labaj AL, Michelutti N, Smol JP, 2018. Cladocera in shallow lakes from the Ecuadorian Andes show little response to recent climate change. Hydrobiologia 822:203–216.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-018-3681-1
Leppänen JJ, 2018. An overview of Cladoceran studies conducted in mine water impacted lakes. Int. Aquat. Res. 10:207–221.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40071-018-0204-7
Leppänen JJ, Weckström J, Korhola A, 2017a. Multiple mining impacts induce widespread changes in ecosystem dynamics in a boreal lake. Sci. Rep. 7:10581.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11421-8
Leppänen JJ, Siitonen S, Weckström J, 2017b. The stability of cladoceran communities in sub-arctic NW Finnish Lapland lakes. Polar Biol. 40:2211–2223.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2135-y
Little AJ, Sivarajah B, Frendo C, Sprague DD, Smol JP, Vermaire JC, 2020. The impacts of century-old, arsenic-rich mine tailings on multi-trophic level biological assemblages in lakes from Cobalt (Ontario, Canada). Sci. Total Environ. 709:136212.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.136212
Manca M, Comoli P, 1995. Temporal variations of fossil Cladocera in the sediments of Lake Orta (N. Italy) over the last 400 years. J. Paleolimnol. 14:113–122.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00735477
Manca M, Vijverberg J, Polishchuk LV, Voronov DA, 2008. Daphnia body size and population dynamics under predation by invertebrate and fish predators in Lago Maggiore: an approach based on contribution analysis. J. Limnol. 67:15–21.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2008.15
Moore M, Folt C, 1993. Zooplankton body size and community structure: effects of thermal and toxicant stress. Trends Ecol. Evol. 8:178–183.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-5347(93)90144-E
Nevalainen L, Luoto TP, 2012. Faunal (Chironomidae, Cladocera) responses to post-Little Ice Age climate warming in high Austrian Alps. J. Paleolimnol. 48:711–724.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-012-9640-3
Nevalainen L, Ketola M, Korosi JB, Manca M, Kurmayer R, Koinig K, Psenner R, Luoto TP, 2014. Zooplankton (Cladocera) species turnover and long-term decline of Daphnia in two high mountain lakes in the Austrian Alps. Hydrobiologia 722:75–91.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1676-5
Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Friendly M, Kindt R, Legendre P, McGlinn D, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MHH, Szoecs E, Wagner H, 2018. vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.5-2.
Palmer MJ, Galloway JM, Jamieson HE, Patterson RT, Falck H, Kokelj SV, 2015. The Concentration of Arsenic in Lake Waters of the Yellowknife Area. Northwest Territories Geological Survey, NWT Open File 2015-06.
Patterson RT, Barker T, Burbidge SM, 1996. Arcellaceans (Thecamoebians) as proxies of arsenic and mercury contamination in Northeastern Ontario lakes. J. Foramin. Res. 26:172–183.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2113/gsjfr.26.2.172
Percival JB, Kwong YTJ, Dumaresq CG, Michel FA, 2004. Transport and attenuation of arsenic, cobalt and nickel in an alkaline environment (Cobalt, Ontario). Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1680.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4095/214977
Persaud A, Cheney CL, Sivarajah B, Blais JM, Smol JP, Korosi JB, 2021. Regional changes in Cladocera (Branchiopoda, Crustacea) assemblages in subarctic (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada) lakes impacted by historic gold mining activities. Hydrobiologia 848:1367-1389.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04534-9
Pinel-Alloul B, André A, Legendre P, Cardille JA, Patalas K, Salki A, 2013. Large-scale geographic patterns of diversity and community structure of pelagic crustacean zooplankton in Canadian lakes. Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 22:784–795.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12041
Pociecha A, Wojtal AZ, Szarek-Gwiazda E, Cieplok A, Ciszewski D, Cichoń S, 2020. Neo- and paleo- limnological studies on diatom and cladoceran communities of subsidence ponds affected by mine waters (S. Poland). Water 12:1581.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/w12061581
R Core Team, 2018. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna.
Sarma SSS, Nandini S, 2006. Review of recent ecotoxicological studies on Cladocerans. J. Environ. Sci. Heal. B 41:1417–1430.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03601230600964316
Sivarajah B, Korosi JB, Blais JM, Smol JP, 2019. Multiple environmental variables influence diatom assemblages across an arsenic gradient in 33 subarctic lakes near abandoned gold mines. Hydrobiologia 841:133–251.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-019-04014-1
Smol JP, 2008. Pollution of lakes and rivers: A paleoenvironmental perspective. Blackwell Publishing, Malden. p. 383.
Sprague DD, Vermaire JC, 2018a. Legacy arsenic pollution of lakes near Cobalt, Ontario, Canada: Arsenic in lake water and sediment remains elevated nearly a century after mining activity has ceased. Water Air Soil Pollut. 229:87.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-3741-1
Sprague DD, Vermaire JC, 2018b. The landscape-scale relationship between lake sediment geochemistry and catchment bedrock composition from the Temagami and Gowganda areas of Northeastern Ontario, Canada. Environ. Earth Sci. 77:463.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7625-x
Sprague DD, Michel FA, Vermaire JC, 2016. The effects of migration on ca. 100-year-old arsenic-rich mine tailings in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada. Environ. Earth Sci. 75:405.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4898-1
Szeroczyńska K, Sarmaja-Korjonen K, 2007. Atlas of subfossil Cladocera from central and northern Europe. Friends of the Lower Vistula Society, Świecie.
Tenkouano G-T, Cumming BF, Jamieson HE, 2019. Geochemical and ecological changes within Moira Lake (Ontario, Canada): A legacy of industrial contamination and remediation. Environ. Pollut. 247:980–988.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.019
Thienpont JR, Korosi JB, Hargan KE, Williams T, Eickmeyer DC, Kimpe LE, Palmer MJ, Smol JP, Blais JM, 2016. Multi-trophic level response to extreme metal contamination from gold mining in a subarctic lake. Proc. R. Soc. B 283:20161125.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.1125
Valleau RE, Paterson AM, Smol JP, 2020. Effects of road salt on Cladocera assemblages in shallow Precambrian Shield lakes in south-central, Ontario, Canada. Freshwater Science 39: 824–836.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/711666
Walseng B, Yan ND, Schartau AK, 2003. Littoral microcrustacean (Cladocera and Copepoda) indicators of acidification in Canadian Shield lakes. AMBIO 32:208–213.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-32.3.208
Winegardner AK, Salter N, Aebishcer S, Pientiz R, Derry AM, Wing B, Beisner BE, Gregory-Eaves I, 2017. Cladoceran diversity dynamics in lakes from a northern mining region: responses to multiple stressors characterized by alpha and beta diversity. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 74:1654–1667.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0449
Edited by
Diego Fontaneto, CNR-IRSA Water Research Institute, Verbania, ItalySupporting Agencies
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaHow to Cite
Sivarajah, Branaavan, Jesse C. Vermaire, and John P. Smol. 2021. “Assessing the Potential Environmental Factors Affecting Cladoceran Assemblage Composition in Arsenic-Contaminated Lakes Near Abandoned Silver Mines”. Journal of Limnology 80 (2). https://doi.org/10.4081/jlimnol.2021.2004.
Copyright (c) 2021 The Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Similar Articles
- Shuchun Yao, Bin Xue, Sediment records of the metal pollution at Chihu Lake near a copper mine at the middle Yangtze River in China , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. 1 (2016)
- Martha Patricia Celis-Salgado, Wendel (Bill) Keller, Norman D. Yan, Calcium and sodium as regulators of the recovery of four Daphnia species along a gradient of metal and base cations in metal contaminated lakes in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. s2 (2016): Lake Orta: a new lease on life
- Arpana Yadav, Lalit Kumar Pandey, In situ effects of arsenic, aluminium and chromium stresses on algal periphyton of the river Ganga at Varanasi, India , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 82 (2023)
- Ruben Ladrera, Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles, Narcís Prat, Impact of potash mining in streams: the Llobregat basin (northeast Spain) as a case study , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 76 No. 2 (2017)
- Roberta Piscia, Simone Tabozzi, Roberta Bettinetti, Liisa Nevalainen, Marina M. Manca, Unexpected increases in rotifer resting egg abundances during the period of contamination of Lake Orta , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. s2 (2016): Lake Orta: a new lease on life
- Javier Sánchez-Hernández, Fernando Cobo, Ontogenetic shifts in terrestrial reliance of stream-dwelling brown trout , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. 2 (2016)
- Andrea Di Cesare, Ester Eckert, Gianluca Corno, Co-selection of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance in freshwater bacteria , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. s2 (2016): Lake Orta: a new lease on life
- Norman D. Yan, John Bailey, James C. McGeer, Marina M. Manca, Wendel (Bill) Keller, Martha P. Celis-Salgado, John M. Gunn, Arrive, survive and thrive: essential stages in the re-colonization and recovery of zooplankton in urban lakes in Sudbury, Canada , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 75 No. s2 (2016): Lake Orta: a new lease on life
- Paraskeva Michailova, Julia Ilkova, Ewa Szarek-Gwiazda, Andrzej Kownacki, Dariusz Ciszewski, Genome instability in Chironomus annularius sensu Strenzke (Diptera, Chironomidae): A biomarker for assessment of the heavy metal contaminants in Poland , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 77 No. s1 (2018): Recent advances in the study of Chironomidae: An overview
- Xu Sun, Zhixin Hu, Wen Jia, Cuilan Duan, Liuyan Yang, Decaying cyanobacteria decrease N2O emissions related to diversity of intestinal denitrifiers of Chironomus plumosus , Journal of Limnology: Vol. 74 No. 2 (2015)
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
