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Combined dynamics of mercury and terrigenous organic matter following impoundment of Churchill Falls Hydroelectric Reservoir, Labrador

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Abstract

Sediments from two recently (40 years) flooded lakes (Gabbro lake and Sandgirt lake) and an unflooded lake (Atikonak lake) were sampled to investigate the effects of reservoir impoundment on mercury (Hg) and terrigenous organic matter (TOM) loading in the Churchill Falls Hydroelectric complex in Labrador, Canada. Lignin biomarkers in TOM, which exclusively derive from terrestrial vegetation, were used as biomarkers for the presence and source origin of TOM—and for Hg due to their close associations—in sediments. In the two flooded Gabbro and Sandgirt lakes, we observed drastic increases in total mercury concentrations, T-[Hg], in sediments, which temporally coincided with the time of reservoir impoundment as assessed by 210Pb age dating. In the natural Atikonak lake sediments, on the other hand, T-[Hg] showed no such step-increase but gradually and slowly increased until present. T-[Hg] increases in lake sediments after flooding were also associated with a change in the nature of TOM: biomarker signatures changed to typical signatures of TOM from vegetated terrestrial landscape surrounding the lakes, and indicate a change to TOM that was much less degraded and typical of forest soil organic horizons. We conclude that T-[Hg] increase in the sediments of the two flooded reservoirs was the result of flooding of surrounding forests, whereby mainly surface organic horizons and upper soil horizons were prone to erosion and subsequent re-sedimentation in the reservoirs. The fact that T-[Hg] was still enriched 40 years after reservoir impoundment indicates prolonged response time of lake Hg and sediment loadings after reservoir impoundments.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Sophie Chen and Isabelle Rheault for their assistance in the laboratory. We also thank Bassam Ghaleb for his support in radiometric measurements analysis and interpretation, Jean Carreau and Véronique Fournier for the sampling work and Arnaud Mansat for map editing. We are grateful to Karsten Kalbitz and two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improve the manuscript. This research was supported by the Collaborative Mercury Research Network (COMERN), financed by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Support for D. Obrist was provided by an EPA Science-To-Achieve-Results (STAR) Grant (R833378).

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  1. Roman Teisserenc

    Present address: Université de Toulouse; INP, UPS, CNRS; EcoLab (Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement), ENSAT, Avenue de l’Agrobiopole, Auzeville-Tolosane, BP 32607, 31326, Castanet Tolosan Cedex, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collaborative Mercury Research Network, Institut des Sciences de l’Environnement and GEOTOP, Université du Québec à Montréal, Succ. Centre-ville, C.P. 8888, Montreal, QC, H3C 3P8, Canada

    Roman Teisserenc, Marc Lucotte, René Canuel & Matthieu Moingt

  2. Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV, 89512, USA

    Daniel Obrist

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Correspondence to Roman Teisserenc.

Electronic supplementary material

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10533_2013_9902_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Sedimentary profiles of atomic carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio of Atikonak (unflooded), Gabbro and Sandgirt (flooded) lakes (TIFF 436 kb)

10533_2013_9902_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Sedimentary profiles of acid to aldehyde ratio for vanillyl (Ad:Al)V and syringyl (Ad:Al)S phenols of Atikonak (unflooded), Gabbro and Sandgirt (flooded) lakes (TIFF 565 kb)

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Teisserenc, R., Lucotte, M., Canuel, R. et al. Combined dynamics of mercury and terrigenous organic matter following impoundment of Churchill Falls Hydroelectric Reservoir, Labrador. Biogeochemistry 118, 21–34 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9902-9

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