The impacts of century-old, arsenic-rich, mine tailings on multitrophic level biological assemblages in lakes from the Cobalt, Ontario, Canada region

The combination of silver mining and lack of environmental regulations in the early 1900s resulted in a legacy of century-old, arsenic-rich mine tailings around Cobalt, Ontario, Canada. In order to examine the impacts that arsenic has had on aquatic ecosystems in the region, diatom, cladoceran, chironomid, and zooplankton assemblages from lakes along a gradient of surface water arsenic contamination (0.4 - 1,113 µg/L) were sampled. Our results show that present-day arsenic concentration is not a significant driver of biotic community change across the study lakes, suggesting that other variables are more important in the structuring of the biological community in this region. These results suggest that while legacy contamination has greatly increased arsenic concentration beyond the acceptable guideline for aquatic life (5 µg/L), variability in lake morphometry among the study lakes and other environmental factors appear more influential in the structuring of aquatic ecosystems in Cobalt, Ontario, Canada.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (M.Sc.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Geography

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Little, Amanda

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2019 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2019-13847

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/40314