Effects of Acid Rock Drainage on Stocked Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): An In-Situ, Caged Fish Experiment

Abstract

In-situ caged rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) studies reveal significant fish toxicity and fish stress in a river impacted by headwater acid rock drainage (ARD). Stocked trout survival and aqueous water chemistry were monitored for 10 days at 3 study sites in the Snake River watershed, Colorado, U.S.A. Trout mortality was positively correlated with concentrations of metals calculated to be approaching or exceeding conservative toxicity thresholds (Zn, Mn, Cu, Cd). Significant metal accumulation on the gills of fish stocked at ARD impacted study sites support an association between elevated metals and fish mortality. Observations of feeding behavior and significant differences in fish relative weights between study site and feeding treatment indicate feeding and metals-related fish stress. Together, these results demonstrate the utility of in-situ exposure studies for stream stakeholders in quantifying the relative role of aqueous contaminant exposures in limiting stocked fish survival.

An enriched stable‐isotope approach to determine the gill‐zinc binding properties of juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) during acute zinc exposures in hard and soft waters

“…These results likely stem from the high endogenous levels of Zn within the gill relative to the new Zn accumulated during the exposure and from the considerable variability observed in total gill Zn concentrations between individual rainbow trout. Similar observations have been documented following both laboratory [9,12,16] and field [13,14] exposures to elevated waterborne Zn concentrations. These observations indicate that total gill Zn concentration is an unsuitable parameter for detecting shortterm uptake of Zn onto the gills of rainbow trout.…”

“…For essential metals such as Zn, studies of metal uptake in aquatic organisms have been complicated by inherent difficulties in distinguishing between preexisting and new metal accumulated during experimental exposures [9,[12][13][14]. Traditionally, experiments quantifying Zn-uptake kinetics in aquatic organisms have employed radioisotope tracers [12,15,16].…”

Aquatic pollution increases use of terrestrial prey subsidies by stream fish

“…Previous work in this region suggested that trout in streams at the high end of their metal tolerance (in this case annually stocked Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss) might be limited by food availability in addition to direct toxic effects of metals (Todd et al . ). Thus, loss of prey may drive effects of trace metals on salmonids in this region, especially when metal effects on aquatic insects are stronger than direct impacts on fish themselves (e.g.…”

Implementación de Dos Sistemas de Biorremediación como Estrategia para la Prevención y Mitigación de los Efectos del Drenaje Ácido de Roca en la Cordillera Blanca, Perú

“…La cantidad de contaminantes presentes en el agua dependerá del tiempo de contacto del flujo de agua con la pirita, que está determinado por su trayectoria (University of Amsterdam, 2012). Numerosos estudios han demostrado la toxicidad de la pirita, los sulfuros y otros metales pesados, para la flora y fauna acuática, como las truchas (Vuori, 1995;Todd et al, 2007).…”