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Functional Responses of Stream Communities to Acid Mine Drainage Remediation

Drerup, Samuel A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1458822356

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Plant Biology (Arts and Sciences).
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a consequence of historical and present day mining activities. Remediation efforts are frequently successful in improving water quality with elevated pH and decreased dissolved metals. In many streams, there has been chemical and biological recovery. The goal of restoration is to improve both biological communities and processes within the stream. I compared biofilm community structure (using fatty acid profiles), function (primary production, extracellular enzyme activity), and food web structure from three stream categories in southeast Ohio: streams impaired by acid mine drainage, streams that have undergone remediation of AMD impairment, and streams that have not been impaired by AMD. I hypothesize that remediated streams will be more reliant on terrestrial sources of energy due to nutrient limitation of benthic biofilms. Fatty acid profiles (PLFA and total fatty acids) identified distinct biofilm communities associated with AMD-impaired streams or AMD-remediated and AMD-unimpaired streams and showed that these biofilm communities were not different throughout the sampling season. I found that the lowest rates of benthic biofilm gross primary productivity and primary producer biomass (chlorophyll a) were in the impaired streams while AMD-unimpaired streams had the highest. Biofilm production and primary producer biomass in streams that were classified as remediated were in between impaired and unimpaired and not statistically different from either. Results of carbon and nutrient acquiring extracellular enzyme activities suggest that phosphorus availability is limiting production and biomass in the impaired and remediated streams, probably as a result of metal precipitates associated with AMD readily binding with biologically available forms of phosphorus. Invertebrate carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis showed that two invertebrate predators (Nigronia sp. and Boyeria sp.) had lower reliance on autochthonous basal resources and that food web niche space was also reduced in remediated and impaired streams. The results of my dissertation suggest that although the water chemistry and taxonomic diversity (invertebrates and fish) in these remediated streams has improved, key ecological functions may still be impaired. Benthic primary production is reduced, relative to the unimpaired streams, and food webs are more dependent on detritus based carbon sources in remediated streams. In part, this reduction of benthic production and its importance to invertebrate food webs may be due to phosphorus limitation.
Morgan Vis (Advisor)
Kelly Johnson (Committee Member)
Jared DeForest (Committee Member)
Brian McCarthy (Committee Member)
162 p.
Freshwater Ecology
Acid mine drainage; remediation; extracellular enzyme activity, primary production; phospholipid fatty acid; stable isotope food web; phosphorus limitation

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Drerup, S. A. (2016). Functional Responses of Stream Communities to Acid Mine Drainage Remediation [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1458822356

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Drerup, Samuel. Functional Responses of Stream Communities to Acid Mine Drainage Remediation. 2016. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1458822356.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Drerup, Samuel. "Functional Responses of Stream Communities to Acid Mine Drainage Remediation." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1458822356

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12