Abstract
The application of road de-icing salts has the potential to salinize fresh waters and degrade habitat for aquatic organisms. In the Australian Alps, the ecological effects of even small salinity increases from de-icing may be different than in North America and Europe because of (1) differences in the evolutionary history, and (2) areas with de-icing in Australia are not located in urbanized landscapes where de-icing has been largely studied elsewhere. In this study, we tried to determine the salinity increases attributable to de-icing in Australia and the effects of this increase in salinity to stream macroinvertebrates. We observed increased salt concentrations (as measured by continuous measurements of electrical conductivity (EC) and periodic measurements of chloride concentrations) in streams near two Australian ski resorts, during the snow seasons (June to September) of 2016 to 2018. The maximum EC observed in streams in salted sites near Perisher, New South Wales, was 390 µS cm−1 compared with a maximum of 26.5 µS cm−1 at unsalted sites. Lower EC values (i.e., maximum 61.1 µS cm−1) and short durations of salinity increases in streams near Falls Creek, Victoria, were not expected to cause an adverse biological response. Salt storage in the landscape was evident at salted sites near Perisher where EC was above background levels during periods of the year when no salt was applied to roads. Stream macroinvertebrate community composition differed at sites receiving run-off from road salting activities near Perisher. Abundances of Oligochaeta (worms) (up to 11-fold), Dugesiidae (flat worms) (up to fourfold), and Aphroteniinae (chironomids) (up to 14-fold) increased, whereas Leptophlebiidae (mayflies) decreased by up to 100% compared with non-salted sites. The taxa that were less abundant where de-icing salts were present tended to be the same taxa that toxicity testing revealed to be relatively salt sensitive species. This study demonstrates a causal link between de-icing salts, elevated stream salinity, and altered macroinvertebrate community composition in streams that received run-off from road de-icing activity in the Australian Alps.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for project funding from the Australian Alps national parks Cooperative Management Program, from which Mark Shenton and Benjamin Moulding received scholarships. This work was conducted under a Scientific Licence (no. SL101713) from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service and Research Permit (no. 10007909) from the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. They also thank the staff of NSW Parks and Wildlife Service and Elizabeth Wright (Parks Victoria) for collection of samples and providing accommodation for researchers, as well as Transport NSW contractors for providing road de-icing salt samples. Thanks to Simon Foster for assistance in IC analyses, Guillaume Kon Kam King for advice and collaboration during the project, and Kathryn McGilp for undertaking field sampling and data collection. Additionally, Kaylin de Lembracht, Brian Johnston, Callum McKinnon, Hannah Moulding, Kylie Shenton, Mark Tupalski and Elizabeth Wright for volunteer assistance in the field. Finally, thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that greatly improved the quality of this manuscript.
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Shenton, M.D., Nichols, S.J., Bray, J.P. et al. The Effects of Road De-icing Salts on Water Quality and Macroinvertebrates in Australian Alpine Areas. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 82, 266–280 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-021-00827-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-021-00827-1