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Paleolimnological evidence of mining and demographic impacts on Lac Dauriat, Schefferville (subarctic Québec, Canada)

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Abstract

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of fossil diatoms and geochemical signals preserved in the sediments of Lac Dauriat (subarctic Quebec) were performed to evaluate the impacts of nearby mining activity and the expansion of the town of Schefferville on the water quality of the lake, and to reconstruct the changes of its trophic status. The presence of taxa typical of nutrient-enriched environments (e.g., Cyclostephanos invisitatus, Nitzschia gracilis, Nitzschia perminuta) and the low percentages of chrysophytes were indicative of the advanced state of eutrophication of the lake during the peak of mining activity, and were evidence of the negative impacts of municipal waste on the water quality of Lac Dauriat. Sedimentary analysis of metals, notably lead, mercury, cadmium, bismuth, cobalt, copper and zinc, showed maximum concentrations between 1940 and 1960 with mining era to pre-development enrichment factors ranging from 4.5 to 7.9. The changes seen in recent sediments reflected 3 distinct stages in the recent history of this ecosystem: (a) the non-perturbed, pre-mining (1882–1939), (b) the perturbed, mining period (1939–1977) with accelerated eutrophication, and (c) the post-mining period (1977–1999) with indications of natural recovery of the system after the installation of a water treatment plant in 1975, the closing of the mine in 1983, and the subsequent exodus of the town’s population. Despite the trajectory towards a return to the lake’s natural conditions, water resource managers and (paleo-)limnologists should be alarmed that the impacts of past human disturbance are still in evidence more than 20 years after the closure of the mines, and that Lac Dauriat has yet to reach its natural state of the period preceding extreme anthropogenic impact.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for research funding to R. Pienitz and also for an NSERC summer scholarship to L. Laperrière. We also thank the Centre d’études nordiques for logistical support, I. R. Walker for help in the field, and S. Duchesneau for assistance with cartography. Also, we thank G. Sardella, F. Yang and X. Wang (NWRI) for geochemical analyses. Finally, we thank D. Antoniades for translating the manuscript and members of the Paleolimnology––Paleoecology Laboratory, notably C. Zimmermann, K. Roberge and I. Lavoie.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’études nordiques, Laboratoire de Paléolimnologie—Paléoécologie, Département de Géographie, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada, G1K 7P4

    Laurence Laperrière & Reinhard Pienitz

  2. Département de chimie-biologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada, G9A 5H7

    Marie-Andrée Fallu

  3. Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas, 102 A Ozark Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Sonja Hausmann

  4. Aquatic Ecosystem Protection Research Division, Water Science and Technology Directorate, Environment Canada, Burlington, ON, Canada, L7R 4A6

    Derek Muir

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  1. Laurence Laperrière
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  2. Marie-Andrée Fallu
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  3. Sonja Hausmann
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  4. Reinhard Pienitz
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  5. Derek Muir
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Correspondence to Reinhard Pienitz.

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Laperrière, L., Fallu, MA., Hausmann, S. et al. Paleolimnological evidence of mining and demographic impacts on Lac Dauriat, Schefferville (subarctic Québec, Canada). J Paleolimnol 40, 309–324 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-007-9162-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-007-9162-6

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