Abstract
This study employs chemical fractionations of sedimentary metals and analyses of sediment arcellacean (thecamoebian) faunas to study the ecological effects of mining wastewaters in a boreal lake bay that receives metal-rich waters from a Cu mine. Sediment chemistry and arcellacean species compositions were analyzed from both surface sediment samples and a sediment profile to investigate spatial and temporal changes in mine water pollution and biota. Based on the results, geochemical gradients in the area are caused by dispersal and dilution of metal-rich, low-pH mine waters entering the lake; transport and focusing of fine grained metal precipitates and sulphate in the deep areas of the bay; increase in pH due to sulphate reduction and mobilization of redox-sensitive elements from deep water sites; and precipitation of the mobilized metals at shallower sites. Arcellacean species compositions change systematically with increasing distance from the source of pollution and species diversity as well as concentrations of tests in the samples increase as well. Fe:Mn ratio and adsorbed Al explained variation in surface sediment arcellaceans with statistical significance. Fe:Mn ratio is an indicator of the overall geochemical environment (Eh, pH), while the toxicity of Al in aquatic environments is well known. Changes in arcellacean species and geochemistry in the long core suggest that before the mine closure in 1983, mine waters differed in nature from the present acid drainage and metals such as Cu, Co, Zn and Ni may have affected arcellaceans at that time.
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Kauppila, T., Kihlman, S. & Mäkinen, J. Distribution of Arcellaceans (Testate Amoebae) in the Sediments of a Mine Water Impacted Bay of Lake Retunen, Finland. Water Air Soil Pollut 172, 337–358 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9099-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-006-9099-9