Journal
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
Volume 36, Issue -, Pages 339-347Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.08.003
Keywords
Acid mine drainage (AMD); Stable isotopes; Metrics; Gradient; Food web
Categories
Funding
- Brian Mason Scientific & Technical Trust
- Foundation for Science Research Technology [CRLX0401]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- University of Canterbury
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Most tools used to assess pollution impacts are based on structural, or less frequently, functional aspects of biotic communities. However, the application of measures that take a food web approach to understand the effects of stress on stream ecosystems offers a new perspective and promising insights. We assessed quantitative isotopic metrics, which describe characteristics of food web structure, as indicators of acid mine drainage (AMD) in 12 streams along a stress gradient and compared these metrics with traditional structural and functional metrics. The gradient ranged from highly stressed (pH < 3) streams with elevated concentrations of dissolved metals (Fe and Al) to moderately acidic streams (pH 3.6-4.9) with substrata coated in metal hydroxide precipitates and circumneutral reference streams. Key differences in food web structure were detected by the isotopic metrics. Specifically, fewer trophic levels and reduced trophic diversity characterized food webs in all mining impacted streams but the differences were not significant along the gradient. In contrast, most structural and functional metrics were significant predictors of AMD as stress increased. Therefore, our results suggest that isotopic metrics offer little advantage over traditional metrics in terms of detecting impacts for biomonitoring purposes. However, they do provide additional insights into how whole food webs are disrupted, and are likely to be more useful for guiding stream management and rehabilitation strategies. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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