Mining Pollution

My students and I are applying sedimentary eDNA approaches to reconstruct historical, and in some cases, ongoing impacts from metal mining on aquatic community assemblages:

a) Historical gold mining left a toxic legacy of decades of untreated arsenic contamination in surrounding aquatic ecosystems in northern Canada, including near Yellowknife, NWT, Canada. Combined with a complimentary spatial lake survey of water eDNA, we are applying sedimentary eDNA metabarcoding to examine the effects of the historical arsenic pollution on aquatic plankton communities over time.
PhD candidate A. Fortin-Archambault (UQAM); Co-supervisor: Irene Gregory-Eaves, Collaboration: Z. Taranu, Environment and Climate Change Canada.

b) Open pit iron ore mining. There are debated uncertainties about how airborne Fe pollution to aquatic ecosystems from historical and contemporary Fe mining influences algal blooms and freshwater biodiversity that cause water quality problems for local First Nations communities in northeastern Quebec / northwestern Labrador, Canada. Using a field enclosure experiment, we tested lethal effects of particulate iron oxide on crustacean zooplanktion, especially cladocerans, a finding not documented previously.
As a next step in this line of investigation, we are applying sedimentary eDNA to examine the extent to which iron ore mining activities have on primary production and cyanobacterial abundance, and northern aquatic biodiversity in understudied taiga lakes near Schefferville QC, at the heart of Canada’s iron ore mining activities.
MSc candidates B. Tran and T. Nhun-Fat (UQAM), codirection with Z. Taranu, Environment and Climate Change Canada; Collaborators: J. Smol, Queen’s and I. Gregory-Eaves, McGill.

St.-Martin, M., I. Gregory-Eaves, P. Thomas, M. Bogard, and A.M. Derry. 2026. Experimental iron addition to mesocosms alters freshwater plankton communities: Insights based on multiple community and ecosystem metrics. To be Submitted Soon!

Baril, S., S.W. Kembel, N. Westwood, M. Schwarz, J. Carreau and A.M. Derry. 2025. DNA metabarcoding reveals differences in bacterial and fungal leaf litter community responses to historical copper mining impacts in streams. 2025. Hydrobiologia – In Review