Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Regional gold mining activities and recent climate warming alter diatom assemblages in deep sub-Arctic lakes

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Polar Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Previous paleolimnological investigations have examined the effects of gold mining operations, local land-use changes, and regional climate warming on the aquatic biota from shallow lakes in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. However, the long-term impacts of these multiple environmental stressors on the biota of deeper lakes that support large-bodied fish species have not been investigated. In this study, we examined multiple sedimentary proxies from two deep lakes around Yellowknife to assess the long-term effects of metalloid contamination, development of the city, and recent warming over the past ~ 200 years. The sedimentary metalloid profiles tracked the influence of mining operations and local land-use changes in the Yellowknife area and there were some similarities in the diatom responses to multiple stressors across the two lakes. However, the increases in sedimentary metalloid concentrations, eutrophic diatom taxa, and whole-lake primary production were more pronounced at Grace Lake relative to Alexie, likely because Grace is located nearer to the gold mines, as well as local city development. The overall lake primary production and the relative abundance of the planktonic diatom Discostella stelligera increased at both sites suggesting that some of the biological changes may be influenced by changes in thermal stratification, as has been documented in a wide spectrum of lakes across the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, the diatom assemblage changes in these deep lakes differed from those observed from shallow lakes in the region, suggesting that site-specific limnological characteristics will influence the biological responses to multiple environmental stressors through time.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Appleby PG (2001) Chronostratigraphic techniques in recent sediments. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments Vol 1: Basin analysis, coring and chronological techniques. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 172–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Austin A, Deniseger J, Clark MJR (1985) Lake algal populations and physico-chemical changes after 14 years input of metallic mining wastes. Water Res 19:299–308

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Battarbee RW, Charles DF (1987) The use of diatom assemblages in lake sediments as a means of assessing the timing, trends, and causes of lake acidification. Prog Phys Geog 11:552–580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett KD (1996) Determination of the number of zones in a biostratigraphical sequence. New Phytol 132:155–170

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Birks HJB (2010) Numerical methods for the analysis of diatom assemblage data. In: Smol JP, Stoermer EF (eds) The diatoms: applications for the environmental and earth sciences. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 23–54

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan DT, Blanchfield PJ, Cott PA (2016) Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) spawning habitat in a northern lake: the role of wind and physical characteristics on habitat quality. J Great Lakes Res 42:299–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cattaneo A, Couillard Y, Wunsam S, Courcelles M (2004) Diatom taxonomic and morphological changes as indicators of metal pollution and recovery in Lac Default (Québec, Canada). J Paleolimnol 32:163–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cattaneo A, Couillard Y, Wunsam S (2008) Sedimentary diatoms along a temporal and spatial gradient of metal contamination. J Paleolimnol 40:115–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen G, Shi H, Tao J, Chen L, Liu Y, Lei G, Liu X, Smol JP (2015) Industrial arsenic contamination causes catastrophic changes in freshwater ecosystems. Sci Rep 5:17419

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Coleman LC (1957) Mineralogy of the Giant Yellowknife gold mine, Yellowknife, N.W.T. Econ Geol 52:400–425

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cott PA, Johnston TA, Gunn JM (2011) Food web position of burbot relative to lake trout, northern pike, and lake whitefish in four sub-Arctic boreal lakes. J Appl Ichthyol 27(Supp 1):49–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cott PA, Schein A, Hanna BW, Johnston TA, MacDonald DD, Gunn JM (2015) Implications of linear developments on northern fishes. Environ Rev 23:177–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cousens B, Falck H, Ootes L, Jackson V, Mueller W, Corcoran P, Finnigan C, van Hees E, Facey C, Aalcazar A (2006) Regional correlations, tectonic settings, and stratigraphic solutions in the Yellowknife greenstone belt and adjacent areas from geo-chemical and Sm-Nd isotopic analyses of volcanic and plutonic rocks; in Gold in the Yellowknife Greenstone Belt, Northwest Territories: In: Anglin CD, Falck H, Wright DF, Ambrose EJ (eds.). Results of the EXTECH III Multidisciplinary Research Project. Geological Association of Canada, Mineral Deposits Division, Special Publication 3. pp. 70–94

  • Dirszowsky RW, Wilson KM (2016) Biogeochemical evidence of eutrophication and metal contamination of Frame Lake, City of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Environ Earth Sci 75:76

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Evans DO, Nicholls KH, Allen YC, McMurtry MJ (1996) Historical land use, phosphorus loading, loss of fish habitat in Lake Simcoe, Canada. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 53:194–218

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gavel MJ, Patterson RT, Nasser NA, Galloway JM, Hanna BW, Cott PA, Roe HM, Falck H (2018) What killed Frame Lake? A precautionary tale for urban planners. PeersJ. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4850

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glew JR (1988) A portable extruding device for close interval sectioning of unconsolidated core samples. J Paleolimnol 1:235–239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths K, Michelutti N, Sugar M, Douglas MSV, Smol JP (2017) Ice-cover is the principal driver of ecological change in High Arctic lakes and ponds. PLoS ONE 12(3):e0172989

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Grimm EC (1987) CONISS: A FORTRAN 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares. Comput Geosci 13:13–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guzzo MM, Blanchfield PJ (2017) Climate change alters the quantity and phenology of lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in small Boreal Shield lakes. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 74:871–884

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guzzo MM, Blanchfield PJ, Chapelsky AJ, Cott PA (2016) Resource partitioning among top-level piscivores in a sub-Arctic lake during thermal stratification. J Great Lakes Res 42:276–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadley KR, Douglas MSV, McGhee RH, Blais JM, Smol JP (2010) Ecological influences of Thule Inuit whalers on high Arctic pond ecosystems: a comparative paleolimnological study from Bathurst Island (Nunavut, Canada). J Paleolimnol 44:85–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Håkansson H (2002) A compilation and evaluation of species in the general Stephanodiscus, Cyclotestephanos and Cyclotella with a new genus in the family Stephanodiscaceae. Diatom Res 17:1–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Healey MC, Woodall WL (1973) Limnological surveys of seven lakes near Yellowknife. Northwest Territories. Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Technical Report, p 407

  • Henderson JB (1985) Geology of the Yellowknife-Hearne Lake Area, District of Mackenzie: A segment across an Archean basin. Geological Survey of Canada. Memoir 414

    Google Scholar 

  • Houben AJ, D’Onofrio R, Kokelj SV, Blais JM (2016) Factors affecting elevated arsenic and methyl mercury concentrations in small shield lakes surrounding gold mines near the Yellowknife, NT, (Canada) region. PLoS ONE 11:e0150960

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • INAC (Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) (2007) Giant Mine remediation plan. Report of the Giant Mine Remediation Project Team. Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

  • Jamieson HE (2014) The legacy of arsenic contamination from mining and processing refractory gold ore at Giant Mine, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Rev Minerol Geochem 79:533–551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juggins S (2017) rioja: Analysis of Quaternary Science Data. R package version 0.9–15.1

  • Krammer K, Lange-Bertalot H (1986) Bacillariophyceae. 1. Teil: Naviculaceae. In Ettl H, Gerloff J, Heynig H, Mollenhauer D (eds) Süsswasserflora von Mitteleuropa. Band 2/1. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krammer K, Lange-Bertalot H (1988) Bacillariophyceae. 2. Teil: Bacillariaceae Epithemiaceae, Surirellaceae. In: Ettl H, Gerloff J, Heynig H, Mollenhauer D (eds) Süsswasserflora von Mitteleuropa. Band 2/2. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag

    Google Scholar 

  • Krammer K, Lange-Bertalot H (1991a) Bacillariophyceae. 3. Teil: Centrales, Fragilariaceae, Eunotiaceae. In Ettl H, Gerloff J, Heynig H, Mollenhauer D (eds),Süsswasserflora von Mitteleuropa. Band 2/3. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag

    Google Scholar 

  • Krammer K, Lange-Bertalot H (1991b) Bacillariophyceae. 4. Teil: Achnanthaceae, Kritische-Ergänzungen zu Navicula (Lineolatae) und Gomphonema, Gesamtliteraturverzeichnis. In Ettl H, Gärtner G, Gerloff J, Heynig H, Mollenhauer D (eds) Süsswasserflora von Mitteleuropa. Band 2/4. Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag

    Google Scholar 

  • Leppänen JJ, Weckström J, Korhola A (2017) Multiple mining impacts induce widespread changes in ecosystem dynamics in a boreal lake. Sci Rep 7:10581

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Leppänen JJ, Luoto TP, Weckström J (2019) Spatio-temporal impact of salinated mine water on Lake Jormasjärvi, Finland. Environ Pollut 247:1078–1088

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lotter AF (1998) The recent eutrophication of Baldeggersee (Switzerland) as assessed by fossil diatom assemblages. Holocene 8:395–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michelutti N, Smol JP (2016) Visible spectroscopy reliably tracks trends in paleo-production. J Paleolimnol 56:253–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michelutti N, Blais JM, Cumming BF, Paterson AM, Rühland K, Wolfe AP, Smol JP (2010) Do spectrally inferred determinations of chlorophyll a reflect trends in lake trophic status? J Paleolimnol 43:205–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mullan D, Swindles G, Patterson T, Galloway J, Macumber A, Falck H, Crossley L, Chen J, Pisaric M (2017) Climate change and the long-term variability of the World’s busiest heavy haul ice road. Theor Appl Climatol 129:1089–1108

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelligan C, Jeziorski A, Rühland KM, Paterson AM, Smol JP (2016) Managing lake trout lakes in a warming world: a paleolimnological assessment of nutrients and lake production at three Ontario sites. Lake and Reserv Manag 32:315–328

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Friendly M, et al (2018) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.5–2

  • Palmer MJ, Galloway JM, Jamieson HE, Patterson RT, Falck H, Kokelj SV (2015) The concentration of arsenic in lake waters of the Yellowknife area. Northwest Territories Geological Survey, NWT Open File 2015–06

  • Paterson AM, Rühland KM, Anstey CV, Smol JP (2017) Climate as a driver of increasing algal production in Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada. Lake Res Manage 33:403–414

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ptacnik R, Diehl S, Berger S (2003) Performance of sinking and nonsinking phytoplankton taxa in a gradient of mixing depths. Limnol Oceanogr 48:1903–1912

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2018) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna

    Google Scholar 

  • Rühland K, Smol JP, Pienitz R (2003a) Ecology and spatial distributions of surface-sediment diatoms from 77 lakes in the subarctic Canadian treeline region. Can J Bot 81:57–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rühland K, Priesnitz A, Smol JP (2003b) Evidence for recent environmental changes in 50 lakes across the Canadian Arctic treeline. Arct Antarct Alp Res 35:110–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rühland KM, Paterson AM, Smol JP (2008) Hemispheric-scale patterns of climate-related shifts in planktonic diatoms from North American and European lakes. Glob Change Biol 14:2740–2754

    Google Scholar 

  • Rühland KM, Paterson AM, Smol JP (2015) Diatom assemblage responses to warming: reviewing the evidence. J Paleolimnol 54:1–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schuh CE, Jamieson HE, Palmer MJ, Martin AJ (2018) Solid-phase speciation and post-depositional mobility of arsenic in lake sediments impacted by ore roasting at legacy gold mines in the Yellowknife area, Northwest Territories, Canada. Appl Geochem 91:208–220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Silke R (2009) The operational history of mines in the Northwest Territories. Canada, An Historical Research Project

    Google Scholar 

  • Sivarajah B, Rühland KM, Smol JP (2017) Are diatoms recovering to pre-acidification assemblages in a warming world? Revisiting Killarney Provincial Park lakes (Ontario, Canada). Fundam Appl Limnol 190:13–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sivarajah B, Korosi JB, Blais JM, Smol JP (2019) Multiple environmental variables influence diatom assemblages across an arsenic gradient in 33 subarctic lakes near abandoned gold mines. Hydrobiologia 841:133–151

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Siver PA, Wozniak JA (2001) Lead analysis of sediment cores from seven Connecticut lakes. J Paleolimnol 26:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smol JP (2010) The power of the past: using sediments to track the effects of multiple stressors on lake ecosystems. Frewater Biol 55(Suppl 1):43–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorvari S, Korhola A, Thompson R (2002) Lake diatom response to recent Arctic warming in Finnish Lapland. Glob Change Biol 8:153–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sprague DD, Michel FA, Vermaire JC (2016) The effects of migration on ca. 100-year-old arsenic-rich mine tailings in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada. Environ Earth Sci 75:405

  • Stewart DB (1997) A review of the status and harvests of fish stocks in the North Slave area. Northwest Territories, Central and Arctic Region Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Winnipeg, Manitoba

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart EM, Hargan KE, Sivarajah B, Kimpe LE, Blais JM, Smol JP (2018) A paleoenvironmental study tracking eutrophication, mining pollution, and climate change in Niven Lake, the first sewage lagoon of Yellowknife (Northwest Territories). Arctic 71:201–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • St-Onge SM (2007) Impacts of arsenic and sulphur dioxide contamination from mining activities on forest health near Yellowknife, NWT. MSc Thesis, Carleton University

  • Summers JC, Kurek J, Kirk JL, Muir DCG, Wang X, Wiklund JA, Cooke CA, Evans MS, Smol JP (2016) Recent warming, rather than industrial emissions of bioavailable nutrients, is the dominant driver of lake primary production shifts across the Athabasca Oil Sands Region. PLoS ONE 11(5):e0153987

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Thienpont JR, Korosi JB, Hargan KE, Williams T, Eickmeyer DC, Kimpe LE, Palmer MJ, Smol JP, Blais JM (2016) Multi-trophic level response to extreme metal contamination from gold mining in a subarctic lake. Proc R Soc B 283:20161125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Berghe MD, Jamieson HE, Palmer MJ (2018) Arsenic mobility and characterization in lakes impacted by gold ore roasting, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada. Environ Pollut 234:630–641

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Walker SR, Jamieson HE, Lanzirotti A, Andrade CF, Hall GEM (2005) The speciation of arsenic in iron oxides in mine wastes from the Giant Gold Mine, N.W.T.: Application of synchrotron micro-xrd and micro-xanes at the grain scale. Can Mineral 43:1205–1224

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe SA (1998) Living with frozen ground: a field guide to permafrost in Yellowknife. Northwest Territories, Geological Survey of Canada Miscellaneous Report, p 64

  • Wong HKT, Gauthier A, Nriagu JO (1999) Dispersion and toxicity of metals from abandoned gold mine tailings at Goldenville, Nova Scotia, Canada. Sci Total Environ 228:35–47

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Water chemistry analysis by Judy Mah and the Taiga Environmental Laboratory, and field work by Kristen Coleman, Dave Eickmeyer, Jennifer Korosi, and Joshua Thienpont are greatly acknowledged. The authors thank Profs. Piepenburg and Van de Vijver along with two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive feedback on our manuscript that improved the clarity and quality. This study was funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Strategic Grant (STPGP 493786-16) and Polar Continental Shelf Program grants to Jules M. Blais and John P. Smol, as well as an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship D, Northern Scientific Training Program, and a W. Garfield Weston Scholarship for Northern Research (doctoral) to Branaavan Sivarajah.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory, Department of Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Branaavan Sivarajah, Madi Perrett & John P. Smol

  2. Laboratory for the Analysis of Natural and Synthetic Environmental Toxicants, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Cynthia L. Cheney, Linda E. Kimpe & Jules M. Blais

Authors
  1. Branaavan Sivarajah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cynthia L. Cheney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Madi Perrett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Linda E. Kimpe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jules M. Blais
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. John P. Smol
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Branaavan Sivarajah.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 189 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sivarajah, B., Cheney, C.L., Perrett, M. et al. Regional gold mining activities and recent climate warming alter diatom assemblages in deep sub-Arctic lakes. Polar Biol 43, 305–317 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02635-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02635-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation