Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems
Recent attention regarding the impacts of oil and gas development and exploitation has focused on the unintentional release of hydrocarbons into the environment, whilst the potential negative effects of other possible avenues of environmental contamination are less well documented. In the hydrocarbo...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:3819393 2023-05-15T15:13:43+02:00 Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems Thienpont, Joshua R. Kokelj, Steven V. Korosi, Jennifer B. Cheng, Elisa S. Desjardins, Cyndy Kimpe, Linda E. Blais, Jules M. Pisaric, Michael FJ. Smol, John P. 2013-11-06 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3819393 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24223170 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3819393 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24223170 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2013 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 2013-11-17T01:34:37Z Recent attention regarding the impacts of oil and gas development and exploitation has focused on the unintentional release of hydrocarbons into the environment, whilst the potential negative effects of other possible avenues of environmental contamination are less well documented. In the hydrocarbon-rich and ecologically sensitive Mackenzie Delta region (NT, Canada), saline wastes associated with hydrocarbon exploration have typically been disposed of in drilling sumps (i.e., large pits excavated into the permafrost) that were believed to be a permanent containment solution. However, failure of permafrost as a waste containment medium may cause impacts to lakes in this sensitive environment. Here, we examine the effects of degrading drilling sumps on water quality by combining paleolimnological approaches with the analysis of an extensive present-day water chemistry dataset. This dataset includes lakes believed to have been impacted by saline drilling fluids leaching from drilling sumps, lakes with no visible disturbances, and lakes impacted by significant, naturally occurring permafrost thaw in the form of retrogressive thaw slumps. We show that lakes impacted by compromised drilling sumps have significantly elevated lakewater conductivity levels compared to control sites. Chloride levels are particularly elevated in sump-impacted lakes relative to all other lakes included in the survey. Paleolimnological analyses showed that invertebrate assemblages appear to have responded to the leaching of drilling wastes by a discernible increase in a taxon known to be tolerant of elevated conductivity coincident with the timing of sump construction. This suggests construction and abandonment techniques at, or soon after, sump establishment may result in impacts to downstream aquatic ecosystems. With hydrocarbon development in the north predicted to expand in the coming decades, the use of sumps must be examined in light of the threat of accelerated permafrost thaw, and the potential for these industrial wastes to impact ... Text Arctic Mackenzie Delta permafrost PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Arctic Lake ENVELOPE(-130.826,-130.826,57.231,57.231) Canada Mackenzie Delta ENVELOPE(-136.672,-136.672,68.833,68.833) PLoS ONE 8 11 e78875 |
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Research Article Thienpont, Joshua R. Kokelj, Steven V. Korosi, Jennifer B. Cheng, Elisa S. Desjardins, Cyndy Kimpe, Linda E. Blais, Jules M. Pisaric, Michael FJ. Smol, John P. Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
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Research Article |
description |
Recent attention regarding the impacts of oil and gas development and exploitation has focused on the unintentional release of hydrocarbons into the environment, whilst the potential negative effects of other possible avenues of environmental contamination are less well documented. In the hydrocarbon-rich and ecologically sensitive Mackenzie Delta region (NT, Canada), saline wastes associated with hydrocarbon exploration have typically been disposed of in drilling sumps (i.e., large pits excavated into the permafrost) that were believed to be a permanent containment solution. However, failure of permafrost as a waste containment medium may cause impacts to lakes in this sensitive environment. Here, we examine the effects of degrading drilling sumps on water quality by combining paleolimnological approaches with the analysis of an extensive present-day water chemistry dataset. This dataset includes lakes believed to have been impacted by saline drilling fluids leaching from drilling sumps, lakes with no visible disturbances, and lakes impacted by significant, naturally occurring permafrost thaw in the form of retrogressive thaw slumps. We show that lakes impacted by compromised drilling sumps have significantly elevated lakewater conductivity levels compared to control sites. Chloride levels are particularly elevated in sump-impacted lakes relative to all other lakes included in the survey. Paleolimnological analyses showed that invertebrate assemblages appear to have responded to the leaching of drilling wastes by a discernible increase in a taxon known to be tolerant of elevated conductivity coincident with the timing of sump construction. This suggests construction and abandonment techniques at, or soon after, sump establishment may result in impacts to downstream aquatic ecosystems. With hydrocarbon development in the north predicted to expand in the coming decades, the use of sumps must be examined in light of the threat of accelerated permafrost thaw, and the potential for these industrial wastes to impact ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Thienpont, Joshua R. Kokelj, Steven V. Korosi, Jennifer B. Cheng, Elisa S. Desjardins, Cyndy Kimpe, Linda E. Blais, Jules M. Pisaric, Michael FJ. Smol, John P. |
author_facet |
Thienpont, Joshua R. Kokelj, Steven V. Korosi, Jennifer B. Cheng, Elisa S. Desjardins, Cyndy Kimpe, Linda E. Blais, Jules M. Pisaric, Michael FJ. Smol, John P. |
author_sort |
Thienpont, Joshua R. |
title |
Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
title_short |
Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
title_full |
Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
title_fullStr |
Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exploratory Hydrocarbon Drilling Impacts to Arctic Lake Ecosystems |
title_sort |
exploratory hydrocarbon drilling impacts to arctic lake ecosystems |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3819393 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24223170 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-130.826,-130.826,57.231,57.231) ENVELOPE(-136.672,-136.672,68.833,68.833) |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Lake Canada Mackenzie Delta |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Lake Canada Mackenzie Delta |
genre |
Arctic Mackenzie Delta permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Mackenzie Delta permafrost |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3819393 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24223170 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078875 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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11 |
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e78875 |
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