Abstract
Coeur d’Alene Lake (the Lake) has received significant contamination from legacy mining. Aquatic macrophytes provide important ecosystem services, such as food or habitat, but also have the ability to accumulate contaminants. We examined contaminants (arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc) and other analytes (e.g., iron, phosphorus, and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN)) in macrophytes from the Lake. Macrophytes were collected in the Lake from the uncontaminated southern end to the outlet of the Coeur d’Alene River (main contaminant source) located northward and mid lake. Most analytes showed significant north to south trends (Kendall’s tau p ≤ 0.015). Concentrations of cadmium (18.2 ± 12.1), copper (13.0 ± 6.6), lead (195 ± 193), and zinc (1128 ± 523) were highest in macrophytes near the Coeur d’Alene River outlet (mean ± standard deviation in mg/kg dry biomass). Conversely, aluminum, iron, phosphorus, and TKN were highest in macrophytes from the south, potentially related to the Lake’s trophic gradient. Generalized additive modelling confirmed latitudinal trends, but revealed that longitude and depth were also important predictors of analyte concentration (40–95% deviance explained for contaminants). We used sediment and soil screening benchmarks to calculate toxicity quotients. Quotients were used to assess potential toxicity to macrophyte associated biota and delineate where macrophyte concentrations exceeded local background concentrations. Exceedances (toxicity quotient > one) of background levels by macrophyte concentrations were highest for zinc (86%), followed by cadmium (84%), lead (23%), and arsenic (5%).
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Data and code availability
The software description, data, and scripts used in the reported analyses are available at the following data repository: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7768213.
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Acknowledgements
Firstly, we thank the Schitsu’umsh whose support made this work possible. We also thank Darren Lantzer of Tshimakain Creek Laboratories and SVL Analytical, Inc. for processing samples and consultation on analytical results. Lastly, we are grateful to Rebecca Stevens, Laura Laumatia, and the anonymous reviewers who provided critical reviews that significantly improved the manuscript.
Funding
This work was funded by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s Water Resources Program and a grant from the US Bureau of Reclamation (R17AP00237-002).
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Ben D. Scofield: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing. Scott F. Fields: funding acquisition, project administration, supervision, and writing—review and editing. Dale W. Chess: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, and writing—review and editing.
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Scofield, B.D., Fields, S.F. & Chess, D.W. Aquatic macrophytes show distinct spatial trends in contaminant metal and nutrient concentrations in Coeur d’Alene Lake, USA. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 66610–66624 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27211-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27211-x