EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
5/23/2019 | 2:30 PM - 2:45 PM | INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY SHIFTS IN STREAMS EXPOSED TO NATURAL BITUMEN AND OIL SANDS SURFACE MINING IN THE ATHABASCA OIL SANDS AREA, ALBERTA, CANADA | 151 DEF
INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY SHIFTS IN STREAMS EXPOSED TO NATURAL BITUMEN AND OIL SANDS SURFACE MINING IN THE ATHABASCA OIL SANDS AREA, ALBERTA, CANADA
In 2012, the governments of Canada and Alberta launched the Implementation Plan for Oil Sands Monitoring, which included a phased monitoring plan for aquatic ecosystem health. A key objective was to improve the understanding of benthic invertebrate community status in tributaries of the Lower Athabasca River (LAR) in relation to exposure to oil sands surface mining as well as to natural bitumen deposits. From 2012-2017, benthic invertebrate and water quality samples were collected from over 80 sites in LAR tributaries including the Steepbank, Ells, and Mackay rivers. The PERMANOVA routine in PRIMER was used to assess community differences in reference and potentially impacted sites from each tributary. More specifically, reference sites were divided into two categories (inside or outside of the natural bitumen deposit) and potentially impacted sites were grouped based on the extent of disturbance (activity) in the upstream catchment. Initial PERMANOVA results from these rivers suggest that benthic communities shift further from reference condition as the proportion of mining activity in the catchment increases. Potential drivers of community change were also assessed, including water and sediment chemistry, flow characteristics, geology, and land cover.
- Landuse
- Invertebrate
- Water Quality
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Presenters/Authors
Allison Ritcey
(), Environment and Climate Change Canada, allison.ritcey@canada.ca;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -