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Export of detritus and invertebrate from headwater streams: linking mountaintop removal and valley fill coal mining to downstream receiving waters
Citation:
FRITZ, K. M., B. R. JOHNSON, AND R. Price. Export of detritus and invertebrate from headwater streams: linking mountaintop removal and valley fill coal mining to downstream receiving waters. Presented at North American Benthological Society, Sante Fe, NM, June 06 - 11, 2010.
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 fill (MTR/VF) coal mining has resulted in large scale alteration of the topography, reduced forest productivity, and burial of headwater streams in the U.S. Central Appalachians. Although MTR/VF coal mining has occurred for several decades and the direct impacts to headwater have been studied, there is little known about the consequences to downstream ecosystems. We examined the linkage of headwater streams to downstream receiving waters by comparing detritus and invertebrate subsidies from headwater streams draining forested and MTR/VF catchments in a southern West Virginia stream network. Drift nets were deployed over 24-h periods seasonally near the outlets of five forested and five MTR/VF streams. Mean winter discharge ranged from 1.6 - 29.3 L s-1. Total detritus and total invertebrate export varied substantially among mined and forested streams during the winter, but did not differ by land use. However, mayfly density and biomass exported from forested catchments were significantly higher than from MTR/VF catchments during the winter, where mayflies were collected from only one of the five MTR/VF streams.