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DO POST-MINING CONSTRUCTED CHANNELS REPLACE FUNCTIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF HEADWATER STREAMS?
Citation:
FRITZ, K. M., S. FULTON, B. R. JOHNSON, C. BARTON, J. JACK, D. WORD, AND R. A. BURKE. DO POST-MINING CONSTRUCTED CHANNELS REPLACE FUNCTIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF HEADWATER STREAMS? Presented at North American Benthological Society, Columbia, SC, June 03 - 07, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
Mountaintop removal and valley filling is a method for mining coal in the Appalachians. Surface coal mining regulations currently recognize constructed drainage ditches associated with valley fills as compensatory mitigation. Our objective was to determine if these constructed channels are functionally equivalent to natural headwater streams. Six study watersheds were located in Robinson Forest, Breathitt County, Kentucky. Two watersheds were completely mined, two were mined but had intact ephemeral channels, and two were completely intact. Study reaches within each watershed were stratified across a hydrologic permanence gradient (ephemeral, intermittent, and perennial). Physical environment, water chemistry, litter standing crop, litter breakdown, fungal biomass, microbial respiration and litter bag macroinvertebrates were monitored from October 2005 to August 2006. Specific conductance was elevated 30-50X in mined perennial reaches. The physical environment of consturcted channels differed from that of natural channels and differences were most apparent among intermittent reaches. Litter standing crop at intact reaches was consistently higher than at mined reaches for ephemeral sites, but was not consistently different for intermittent and perennial sites. Despite strong differences in macroinvertebrate abundance within litterbags, decay rates did not differ between intact and mined reaches.