Coal slurry, one of the main pollutants created from coal mining, can spill from retention ponds and end up in aquatic ecosystems, potentially harming aquatic life. An area especially affected by this issue due to the heavy presence of coal mining is the central Appalachian coalfields. Aquatic life native to the coalfields where spills occur serve as a source of take for two federally listed crayfish: threatened Cambarus callainus and endangered Cambarus veteranus. Although this is a prominent issue, no baseline physiochemical data exists for streams harboring C. callainus. The main goal of this effort was to establish physiochemical and biological baselines of coalfields streams by measuring common water quality parameters and the crayfish community for one year at historic/current C. callainus sites. Results indicated there were not strong correlations between any chemical driver and total crayfish or crayfish species presence/absence. This data will be used to generate a response protocol to coal slurry spills to aid coalfields crayfish and other aquatic taxa in the future.

Cambarus veteranus and Cambarus callainus are federally endangered and threatened crayfish, that live in the coalfields region of central Appalachia.  The dominant industry and land use in this region is coal mining.  Currently, the most common form of coal mining in this region is surface mining, also known as mountaintop removal mining.  There is a lack of data on the specific impacts of pollutants from mining on crayfish and their congeners.  Chemical pollutants along with increased sedimentation from industrial sources are known to cause adverse effects in crustaceans and can even be lethal.  It is crucial to better understand how these pollutants are affecting crayfishes inhabiting coalfield streams.  This study will assess the bioaccumulation of the metals arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and selenium (Se) in non-imperiled cambarid crayfish that are being used as surrogate species for C. veteranus and C. callainus by analyzing the hepatopancreas and gill tissues.  Physical maladies, such as deformed dactyl and gill melanization, will also be quantified.  This data, as well as species abundance at each site, will be analyzed to better understand the effects of mining on crayfish.

Primary burrowing crayfish life history and ecology is largely due to their cryptic habitat preferences. Cambarus monongalensis, arguably the most charismatic of all crayfishes, lacks basic life history and habitat data because of the aforementioned obstacles. This study seeks to determine the life history and ecological preferences of populations of C. monongalensis in the northern panhandle of West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania with notes on its natural history. Life history data will include form change and reproductive patterns including juvenile size of departure from the maternal burrow. Habitat data were collected using external burrow morphology and burrow locations within a standardized area collected seasonally to determine the preferences and cyclical patterns of crayfishes. With these data, the conservation of this species, and others that follow a similar life history strategy, is possible

Although the distribution and status of West Virginia’s crayfishes has received more attention since the publication of Jezerinac et al.’s monograph of the state fauna in 1995, the crayfishes of the Greenbrier River Drainage have been neglected. Conservation concerns for imperiled crayfish fauna have increased in recent years. However, in order to form effective managements plans, a thorough understanding of the distribution and conservation status of a region's fauna is necessary. In order to establish this understanding of crayfish fauna within the Greenbrier River Drainage, the West Liberty University Crayfish Conservation Laboratory performed surveys during the summers of 2008 and 2009 within the drainage. These efforts have revealed new information regarding the distribution, life history, natural history, taxonomy, and conservation status of the complete assemblage of epigean crayfish species found in the Greenbrier River Drainage: Cambarus appalachiensis, C. carinirostris, C. chasmodactylus, C. smilax, Faxonius cristavarius, F. obscurus, F. sanbornii, and F. virilis. This novel information regarding the distribution and life history of the epigean crayfishes present within the drainage can be used to combat the major conservation threats affecting the native crayfish within the drainage including nonnative crayfishes, land-use practices, and pollutants.                                   

Cambarus veteranus and Cambarus callainus are highly imperiled crayfish that are federally listed. These crayfish are native to the coalfields region of central Appalachia. The dominant industry and land use in this region is coal mining. The most common method of mining in this area, surface mining, employs large ponds to hold a slurry water byproduct created when cleaning the coal. Intermittently, the containment structures for these ponds fail causing the uncontrolled release of coal slurry. There is a lack of data on the rates of bioaccumulation of elements commonly associated with mining in crayfish within this region before and after these spills occur, such that there is no reference to know what concentrations constitutes “normal” rates. Chemical pollutants along with increased sedimentation from industrial sources are known to cause adverse effects in crustaceans and can be lethal. Therefore, it is crucial to better understand what baseline conditions of bioaccumulation are within this region before spills occur. This study assessed the bioaccumulation of magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb) in non-imperiled crayfish by analyzing hepatopancreas and gill tissues. We analyzed rates of bioaccumulation grouped by crayfish genus and tissue type throughout each season Differences between genus and tissue type, reference and degraded sites, and between crayfish tissue type, periphyton, and water were also investigated. Seasonal variation in the concentrations of elements in crayfish tissue was found with higher element concentrations during winter and lower concentrations during summer. Differences between crayfish tissue type, periphyton, and water were also found, with periphyton typically having the highest concentrations, water having the lowest concentrations, and crayfish tissue being between concentrations found in water and periphyton.