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Spatiotemporal and teratological analyses of diatom assemblages from sediments contaminated with industrial effluents in the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall (Ontario, Canada)

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Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, waterfront industries in Cornwall (Ontario, Canada) discharged significant quantities of mercury (Hg) and other industrial effluents to the St. Lawrence River (SLR), which accumulated in downstream sediments and currently persist in some nearshore areas. While a great deal of research has investigated the bioavailability and movement of this legacy Hg up the food web, considerably less is understood about its impacts on the algae that live on these contaminated sediments. This study examined diatom (Bacillariophyceae) responses to present-day and historical sedimentary contamination on the SLR at Cornwall. Surface sediments collected from contaminated zones and upstream reference sites were analyzed alongside a dated sediment core from a contaminated area to evaluate the diatom community assemblage shifts and cell deformations (teratologies) in response to elevated concentrations of sedimentary Hg and other contaminants. Results suggest that elevated sedimentary metal concentrations have a small but significant effect on diatom community assemblage structure and incidence of teratologies. However, it appears that excess nutrient loading from waterfront industry was historically a more important driver of diatom assemblage structure than other industrial effluents.

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Fig. 1

source pollution. Lower panels: Locations of surface sediment collection sites. The blue square in Zone 1 indicates the sediment core collection site. Satellite imagery from the Digital Raster Acquisition Project Eastern Ontario (DRAPE) 2014 (Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, 2015)

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Matthew Windle and Crystal Martell for detailed planning and execution of fieldwork. The authors would additionally like to thank Dr. Alexandre Poulain and Dr. Emmanual Yurnvihoze for the analysis of mercury samples and Dr. Jules Blais and Linda Kimpe for radiometric dating of the sediment core.

Funding

This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Canada Graduate Scholarship to Katherine Moir, an NSERC CREATE grant to Brian Cumming, and funding support from the Governments of Canada and Ontario under the Canada-Ontario Agreement for the Great Lakes (ECCC Project #GCXE17P162, MOECC Project #COA-4015G-16/17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Laboratory, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

    Katherine E. Moir & Brian F. Cumming

  2. St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, Cornwall, ON, Canada

    Jeffrey J. Ridal

Authors
  1. Katherine E. Moir
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  2. Jeffrey J. Ridal
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  3. Brian F. Cumming
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Contributions

KM performed diatom analyses, statistical analyses, spatial analyses, and wrote the manuscript. JR provided sediment samples and editorial assistance. BC supported laboratory work and provided editorial assistance. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katherine E. Moir.

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Conflict of interest

Jeffrey Ridal is an unpaid member of the Cornwall Sediment Strategy steering committee. The other authors declare that they have no personal or financial conflicts of interests associated with any results or interpretations in this manuscript.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10750_2021_4792_MOESM1_ESM.eps

Connection diagram for asymmetric eigenvector mapping, with edges linking sites in reference areas (top), Zone 1 (middle left), Zone 3 (middle right), and Zone 2 (bottom). Inset panels (not to scale) show linkage details in areas too small to represent on the main figure. Red circles encompassing two or more sites indicate that all possible connections exist between these sites. Gray arrows and edges represent connections to an upstream site 0. Refer to Fig. 1 for zone locations. Supplementary file1 (EPS 302 kb)

10750_2021_4792_MOESM2_ESM.png

Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) of diatom assemblage data across surface sediment sites. Sites are symbolized by depth (color; darker = deeper sites) and by location (shape; reference = circles, zone 1 = squares, zone 2 = inverted triangles, zone 3 = upright triangles), while species are indicated with gray vectors. Species included are those that are present in ≥ 2% relative abundance in five or more sites. NMDS stress = 0.21. Diatom species codes are as follows: AMINUS = Achnanthes minuscula, AMINUT = Achnanthidium minutissimum, APED = Amphora pediculus, CNEO = Cocconeis neothumensis, CPLA = Cocconeis placentula complex, EMIC = Encyonopsis microcephala, EMIN = Encyonema minutum, FCAP = Fragilaria capucina, FMES = Fragilaria mesolepta, KCLE = Karayevia clevei, NCRY = Navicula cryptotenella, NSLR = Navicula sp. 2 SLR, NDIS = Nitzschia dissipata, NLAC = Nitzschia lacuum, NPAL = Nitzschia palea, PLAN = Planothidium lanceolatum, PBRE = Pseudostaurosira brevistriata, SSUB = Sellaphora submuralis, SCON = Staurosira construens complex, SPIN = Staurosira pinnata complex, SMAR = Staurosirella martyi. Supplementary file2 (PNG 310 kb)

10750_2021_4792_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Changes in the Cornwall Canal and waterfront industry over time. Top panel: 1958; middle panel: 1960; bottom panel: 2014. The red circle indicates the location of the Z1S2 core. Imagery in the top and middle panels from the Queen’s University Air Photo Library. A15993, photos 62-80, 1958 (top); A17087, photos 19-32, Ottawa, Ontario: Department of Energy, Mines, and Resources, 1960. Bottom panel imagery from the Digital Raster Acquisition Project Eastern Ontario (DRAPE) 2014. Peterborough, Ontario: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. Supplementary file3 (TIF 292188 kb)

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Moir, K.E., Ridal, J.J. & Cumming, B.F. Spatiotemporal and teratological analyses of diatom assemblages from sediments contaminated with industrial effluents in the St. Lawrence River near Cornwall (Ontario, Canada). Hydrobiologia 849, 1417–1436 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04792-7

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