2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
5/24/2018 | 2:00 PM - 2:15 PM | STAGES OF MACROINVERTEBRATE RECOVERY AFTER ABANDONED COAL MINE REMEDIATION IN A PENNSYLVANIA WATERSHED | 410 B
STAGES OF MACROINVERTEBRATE RECOVERY AFTER ABANDONED COAL MINE REMEDIATION IN A PENNSYLVANIA WATERSHED
Abandoned mine drainage (AMD) causes habitat degradation and reduces biological productivity in streams by reducing pH, raising acidity, and elevating concentrations of harmful heavy metals. Treatment systems are a common approach for remediating water quality impaired by AMD, but long-term understanding of biological recovery is lacking. Our work aims to determine the stages of macroinvertebrate community recovery from AMD. In 2017, we collected macroinvertebrate samples from 12 sites within the Bear Run Watershed, Pennsylvania, where nine treatment systems have been constructed intermittently over the past 11 years. We found that macroinvertebrate abundance and taxonomic richness are substantially lower at the remediated sites than at unimpaired sites. Contrary to expectations, the oldest site, remediated in 2007, showed very poor recovery, with 90% fewer individuals and 75% fewer taxa than the unimpaired sites. Recently remediated sites also showed incomplete recovery and signs of impairment, which may in part be due to small, non-point AMD seepages scattered throughout the watershed. Our findings suggest that macroinvertebrate recovery from AMD impairment can take more than a decade.
- Invertebrate
- Pollution
- Remediation
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Presenters/Authors
David J. Janetski
(), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, janetski@iup.edu;
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Cassie Graham
(), Indiana University of Pennsylvania , cassiemgraham117@gmail.com;
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