Changes in macroinvertebrate community structure provide evidence of neutral mine drainage impacts

Abstract

Contamination of aquatic environments as a consequence of metal mining is an international issue. Most historic studies have considered the impact of acid mine drainage (pH < 6) on instream communities and comparatively little attention has been given to sites where drainage is typically circum-neutral (6 > pH < 8). Here, the impacts of historic mining activities on the benthic macroinvertebrate community of a circum-neutral river in central Wales are assessed. Biotic and diversity indices, widely used for biomonitoring purposes, indicate aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages within the Afon Twymyn to be in a good condition, despite severe metal contamination of bed sediments and river water. However, CanonicalCorrespondence Analysis identifies differences in community structure between mining impacted and unimpacted reaches of the river associated with chalcophile

Assessment of the Impacts of Gaba and Ache Targeting Pesticides on Freshwater Invertebrate Family Richness in English Rivers

“…Of these stressors, chemical pollution is a dominant force driving declines of some freshwater biota (Dudgeon et al, 2006;Vaughan and Ormerod, 2012). Exposure to chemical pollutants including metals, petrochemicals, and pesticides have been shown to cause population level impacts on riverine invertebrate communities (Clements, 1994;Scoggins et al, 2007;Beketov et al, 2009;Byrne et al, 2013). Specifically with regards to pesticides, impacts on invertebrate communities, these have been noted worldwide, including from South America, Africa, USA and Europe (Schriever et al, 2007;Beketov et al, 2013;Chiu et al, 2016;Hunt et al, 2017;Macchi et al, 2018;Beuter et al, 2019;Ganatra et al, 2021).…”

“…The impact of metals on riverine invertebrates' richness in the UK have been the focus of much research over the past few decades, however, other chemicals, and notably pesticides have received less attention (Dowson et al, 1996;Hirst et al, 2002;Jarvis and Younger, 2006;Amisah and Cowx, 2011;Byrne et al, 2013;Gething et al, 2020;Walker and Hassall, 2021). Most UK freshwater pesticide studies have also centred around spill events (Dowson et al, 1996) with very few UK studies assessing the chronic and/or episodic exposure effects.…”

Distribution of Trace Elements, Rare Earth Elements and Ecotoxicity in Sediments of the Kosva Bay, Perm Region (Russia)

“…Elevated trace elements concentrations are often found in areas where acid mine waters are discharged from abandoned metal-bearing mines [Wang et al, 2021;Wright et al, 2018]. Trace elements and rare earth elements pollution in the river environment can also have adverse effects on organisms and humans, enter the food chain, and accumulate in aquatic organisms, sometimes at harmful levels [Chan et al, 2021;Byrne et al, 2013;Adeel et al, 2019]. In places where acid mine waters are discharged, low pH, high concentrations of sulphates, Fe, Al, Mn, Cu, Ni, Zn, Cd, Co, Pb and other trace elements that are common to specific deposits are generally found as a result of redox processes [Younger, 2001;Galhardi and Bonoto, 2016;Silva et al, 2013].…”