title: Spatial and temporal relationships among watershed mining, water quality, and freshwater mussel status in an eastern USA river.
abstract: The Powell River of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee, USA, drains a watershed with extensive coal surface mining, and it hosts exceptional biological richness, including at-risk species of freshwater mussels, downstream of mining-disturbed watershed areas. We investigated spatial and temporal patterns of watershed mining disturbance; their relationship to water quality change in the section of the river that connects mining areas to mussel habitat; and relationships of mining-related water constituents to measures of recent and past mussel status. Freshwater mussels in the Powell River have experienced significant declines over the past 3.5 decades. Over that same period, surface coal mining has influenced the watershed. Water-monitoring data collected by state and federal agencies demonstrate that dissolved solids and associated constituents that are commonly influenced by Appalachian mining (specific conductance, pH, hardness and sulfates) have experienced increasing temporal trends from the 1960s through ~2008; but, of those constituents, only dissolved solids concentrations are available widely within the Powell River since ~2008. Dissolved solids concentrations have stabilized in recent years. Dissolved solids, specific conductance, pH, and sulfates also exhibited spatial patterns that are consistent with dilution of mining influence with increasing distance from mined areas. Freshwater mussel status indicators are correlated negatively with dissolved solids concentrations, spatially and temporally, but the direct causal mechanisms responsible for mussel declines remain unknown.
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States. Electronic address: czip@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Carl E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Zipper
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Patricia F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Donovan
authors.affiliation: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, United States; Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Jess W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Price
authors.affiliation: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, Richmond, VA 23218, United States.
authors.forename: Roger E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001061:Appalachian Region; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000378:metabolism*; D003032:Coal Mining; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D013714:Tennessee; D014768:Virginia; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Coal mining; Conductivity; Freshwater salinization; Major ions; Specific conductance; Total dissolved solids