Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site
Abstract Unprecedented rates of resource development and climate change at northern latitudes coupled with a lack of baseline information limits our ability to set ecologically meaningful criteria needed to protect these inherently sensitive ecosystems. We surveyed water and sediment chemistry, comm...
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crwiley:10.1897/ieam_2008-091.1 2024-06-23T07:52:13+00:00 Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site Bowman, Michelle Spencer, Paula Dubé, Monique West, David 2009 http://dx.doi.org/10.1897/ieam_2008-091.1 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1897%2FIEAM_2008-091.1 https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1897/IEAM_2008-091.1 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management volume 6, issue 1, page 12-27 ISSN 1551-3777 1551-3793 journal-article 2009 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1897/ieam_2008-091.1 2024-06-13T04:20:45Z Abstract Unprecedented rates of resource development and climate change at northern latitudes coupled with a lack of baseline information limits our ability to set ecologically meaningful criteria needed to protect these inherently sensitive ecosystems. We surveyed water and sediment chemistry, community composition of benthic algae and invertebrates and fish, and condition of a sentinel fish species, slimy sculpin ( Cottus cognatus ), in 2 rivers adjacent to metal mines and in 20 reference rivers in the headwaters of a World Heritage Site, the South Nahanni River Basin, NWT, Canada. The normal range (i.e., mean ± 2 standard deviations) of biological conditions in regional reference sites (grouped by community type) were used to set ecologically meaningful effect sizes. These effect sizes were used in noncentral hypotheses tests to assess the ecological condition of potentially impaired sites. Significant impairments at sites influenced by current and historical mining activity were indicative of mild enrichment (e.g., increased benthic abundance and sculpin condition) and bioaccumulation of metals (e.g., increased concentrations of Cu and Fe in muscle tissue of sculpin). Comparisons between our regional reference study and a concurrent upstream–downstream study showed that the sensitivity of biological endpoints was typically related to the impairment criteria used and not to the type of study design. Concentrations of metals such as Al, Cu, and Fe in river water at reference sites were above federal and regional guidelines, suggesting that these guidelines are not appropriate for the metal‐rich headwaters of the South Nahanni River. The ephemerellid mayflies Drunella spinifera and Ephemerella maculata were present in 4 of our study sites; their occurrence had not previously been documented in the Yukon or Northwest Territories. Our results confirmed that the lack of baseline information on the physiochemical and biological composition of northern rivers is hampering our ability to evaluate changes in these ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Cottus cognatus Northwest Territories South Nahanni River Slimy sculpin Yukon Wiley Online Library Canada Northwest Territories South Nahanni River ENVELOPE(-123.353,-123.353,61.050,61.050) Yukon Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 6 1 12 27 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Unprecedented rates of resource development and climate change at northern latitudes coupled with a lack of baseline information limits our ability to set ecologically meaningful criteria needed to protect these inherently sensitive ecosystems. We surveyed water and sediment chemistry, community composition of benthic algae and invertebrates and fish, and condition of a sentinel fish species, slimy sculpin ( Cottus cognatus ), in 2 rivers adjacent to metal mines and in 20 reference rivers in the headwaters of a World Heritage Site, the South Nahanni River Basin, NWT, Canada. The normal range (i.e., mean ± 2 standard deviations) of biological conditions in regional reference sites (grouped by community type) were used to set ecologically meaningful effect sizes. These effect sizes were used in noncentral hypotheses tests to assess the ecological condition of potentially impaired sites. Significant impairments at sites influenced by current and historical mining activity were indicative of mild enrichment (e.g., increased benthic abundance and sculpin condition) and bioaccumulation of metals (e.g., increased concentrations of Cu and Fe in muscle tissue of sculpin). Comparisons between our regional reference study and a concurrent upstream–downstream study showed that the sensitivity of biological endpoints was typically related to the impairment criteria used and not to the type of study design. Concentrations of metals such as Al, Cu, and Fe in river water at reference sites were above federal and regional guidelines, suggesting that these guidelines are not appropriate for the metal‐rich headwaters of the South Nahanni River. The ephemerellid mayflies Drunella spinifera and Ephemerella maculata were present in 4 of our study sites; their occurrence had not previously been documented in the Yukon or Northwest Territories. Our results confirmed that the lack of baseline information on the physiochemical and biological composition of northern rivers is hampering our ability to evaluate changes in these ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bowman, Michelle Spencer, Paula Dubé, Monique West, David |
spellingShingle |
Bowman, Michelle Spencer, Paula Dubé, Monique West, David Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
author_facet |
Bowman, Michelle Spencer, Paula Dubé, Monique West, David |
author_sort |
Bowman, Michelle |
title |
Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
title_short |
Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
title_full |
Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
title_fullStr |
Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
title_full_unstemmed |
Regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern World Heritage Site |
title_sort |
regional reference variation provides ecologically meaningful protection criteria for northern world heritage site |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1897/ieam_2008-091.1 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1897%2FIEAM_2008-091.1 https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1897/IEAM_2008-091.1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-123.353,-123.353,61.050,61.050) |
geographic |
Canada Northwest Territories South Nahanni River Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Canada Northwest Territories South Nahanni River Yukon |
genre |
Cottus cognatus Northwest Territories South Nahanni River Slimy sculpin Yukon |
genre_facet |
Cottus cognatus Northwest Territories South Nahanni River Slimy sculpin Yukon |
op_source |
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management volume 6, issue 1, page 12-27 ISSN 1551-3777 1551-3793 |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1897/ieam_2008-091.1 |
container_title |
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
12 |
op_container_end_page |
27 |
_version_ |
1802643465960423424 |