TY - JOUR

T1 - Applying foraminiferal stratigraphy as a biomarker for heavy metal contamination and mining impact in a fiord in West Greenland

AU - Elberling, Bo

AU - Knudsen, Karen Luise

AU - Kristensen, Peter H.

AU - Asmund, Gert

N1 - Funding Information: Funding for this work was provided by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Denmark, as part of the DANCEA-project “Sulphide mineral oxidation—a source of heavy metal pollution in Arctic ecosystems”. DANCEA is known as the Danish Cooperation for Environment in the Arctic. The project was supported by Danish Natural Science Research Council (BE, Reg. No. 1235), Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen and Department of Arctic Environment, National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark. We wish to thank the crew of R/V Adolf Jensen for help during sampling, H. Kunzendorf for dating and E. Alve and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments. The authors are solely responsible for the results and conclusions presented.

PY - 2003/4

Y1 - 2003/4

N2 - Sulphidic mine waste disposed in marine environments constitutes an environmental risk to aquatic life due to potential uptake and accumulation of heavy metals in biota. Fiord sediments near the former Black Angel Mine in West Greenland are contaminated by lead and zinc as a result of submarine tailings disposal in 1973-1990. In 1999 cores were taken up to 10 km away from the disposal area. Analyses include heavy metals, radiochemical dating (210Pb) and high-resolution foraminiferal stratigraphy. The mining operation resulted in significant changes in the assemblage composition. In addition, up to 20% of the Melonis barleeanus population found in sediment deposited during nearby tailings disposal was deformed compared to a natural background of less than 5%. Throughout cores representing the last 100 years of sedimentation, the total numbers and frequency of morphological abnormalities among M. barleeanus revealed some correlation with heavy metals concentrations (up to r2=79%). We conclude that abnormalities among foraminifera may represent a useful biomarker for evaluating trends in the biological impact resulting of submarine tailings disposal as well as long-term environmental impact and subsequent recovery.

AB - Sulphidic mine waste disposed in marine environments constitutes an environmental risk to aquatic life due to potential uptake and accumulation of heavy metals in biota. Fiord sediments near the former Black Angel Mine in West Greenland are contaminated by lead and zinc as a result of submarine tailings disposal in 1973-1990. In 1999 cores were taken up to 10 km away from the disposal area. Analyses include heavy metals, radiochemical dating (210Pb) and high-resolution foraminiferal stratigraphy. The mining operation resulted in significant changes in the assemblage composition. In addition, up to 20% of the Melonis barleeanus population found in sediment deposited during nearby tailings disposal was deformed compared to a natural background of less than 5%. Throughout cores representing the last 100 years of sedimentation, the total numbers and frequency of morphological abnormalities among M. barleeanus revealed some correlation with heavy metals concentrations (up to r2=79%). We conclude that abnormalities among foraminifera may represent a useful biomarker for evaluating trends in the biological impact resulting of submarine tailings disposal as well as long-term environmental impact and subsequent recovery.

KW - Arctic

KW - Bioavailable

KW - Biomarker

KW - Foraminifera

KW - Lead pollution

KW - Melonis barleeanus

KW - Mining

KW - Submarine tailings disposal

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0037374940&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/S0141-1136(02)00219-2

DO - 10.1016/S0141-1136(02)00219-2

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 12683440

AN - SCOPUS:0037374940

VL - 55

SP - 235

EP - 256

JO - Marine Environmental Research

JF - Marine Environmental Research

SN - 0141-1136

IS - 3

ER -