Valley fill mining has the potential to alter headwater stream habitat in many areas in the eastern United States. In valley fill mining, overburden is removed to expose underlying coal seams. The overburden is then deposited in the adjacent valley. The deposited overburden from mining increases sedimentation, increases stream conductivity, and alters hydrologic regimes downstream of the fill. Changes in downstream communities are not well documented. However, it was suspected the increased sedimentation and conductivity would have deleterious effects upon the downstream macroinvertebrate communities. In southern West Virginia, four pairs of streams, each consisting of a fill and a reference stream, were selected as representative of watersheds experiencing valley fill mining. Stream pairs were selected for similar environmental conditions, with one stream having a valley fill in its headwaters. Each stream was sampled by replicate Surber samples (n ¼ 9 per stream). Water chemistry and sediment measurements also were taken at each location. Valley fill streams experienced significantly higher specific conductance (p < 0.01), but did not have elevated levels of fine sediment. Fills exhibited elevated levels of Na, K, Mn, Mg, Ca, Ni and Fe relative to reference streams. Additionally, valley fill streams demonstrated significantly lower densities of Ephemeroptera, Coleoptera, Odonata, Non-insects, Scrapers, and Shredders (p < 0.03) than reference streams. Further, Ephemeroptera richness was negatively related to specific conductivity and many of the richness metrics were negatively related to metals, both of which were generally elevated in fill streams. It appears that at the minimum, valley fills increase specific conductance and metals in streams and this or some other unqualified factors structure the macroinvertebrate community downstream of the valley fill. However, given the level of disturbance in valley fills, it is surprising how little differences existed between fills and reference stream biota.
Abstract.Valley fill mining has the potential to alter headwater stream habitat in many areas in the eastern United States. In valley fill mining, overburden is removed to expose underlying coal seams. The overburden is then deposited in the adjacent valley.The deposited overburden from mining increases sedimentation, increases stream conductivity, and alters hydrologic regimes downstream of the fill. Changes in downstream communities are not well documented. However, it was suspected the increased sedimentation and conductivity would have deleterious effects upon the downstream macroinvertebrate communities. In southern West Virginia, four pairs of streams, each consisting of a fill and a reference stream, were selected as representative of watersheds experiencing valley fill mining. Stream pairs were selected for similar environmental conditions, with one stream having a valley fill in its headwaters. Each stream was sampled by replicate Surber samples (N = 9 per stream). Water chemistry and sediment measurements also were taken at each location. Valley fill streams had significantly higher specific conductance (p<0.01), but did not have elevated levels of fine sediment. Fills also had significantly elevated levels of Na, K, Mn, Mg, Ca, Ni and Fe relative to reference streams. Additionally, valley fill streams had significantly lower densities of Ephemeroptera, Coleoptera, Odonata, Non-insects, Scrapers, and Shredders (p<0.03) than reference streams. Further, Ephemeroptera richness was negatively related to specific conductivity and many of the richness metrics were negatively related to metals, both of which were generally elevated in fill streams. It appears that at the minimum, valley fills increase specific conductance and metals in streams and this or some other unqualified factors structure the macroinvertebrate community downstream of the valley fill. However, given the level of disturbance in valley fills, it is surprising how little differences existed between fills and reference stream biota. Additional
Along the U.S. Atlantic coast, bay anchovy Anchoa mitchilli form an important component of estuarine and coastal food webs. The combination of its trophic position and abundance makes the diet and ration of this fish important in the study of estuarine systems. Diet and ration have been studied in this species in the middle and southern parts of its range, but information is lacking for the northern parts. Therefore, this study sought to quantify the diets and daily ration of bay anchovy on a seasonal basis within the Hudson River, New York, estuary. Diets of bay anchovy in the Hudson River were similar to those reported in other parts of their range. Bay anchovy ate mostly copepods, barnacle Balanas spp. nauplii, and mysid shrimp Neomysis americana. Mysids were seasonally important, contributing up to 81% (by weight) for adult fish in August. No differences were detected in diet composition or prey length between age‐0 and adult bay anchovy within months, but age‐0 fish did have an estimated ration up to 2.7 times as high as that of adults. The adult ration ranged from 0.061 g per gram of body weight per day in May to 0.252 g g−1 d−1 in August. The ration of age‐0 fish ranged from 0.449 to 0.684 g g−1 d−1 in August and September. The daily ration of bay anchovy was higher than reported for the mid‐Chesapeake Bay. This was surprising, as the Hudson River fish are older and larger than those studied in the Chesapeake Bay and physiological allometry indicates that larger individuals should have lower specific rates than smaller ones. This counterintuitive finding suggests that food availability was higher in the Hudson River than in the Chesapeake Bay studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.