Mine tailings storage dams modify upstream headwater fish assemblages

Abstract

Riverscape connectivity is a critically important component determining the ecological condition of lotic ecosystems. We evaluated changes in fish assemblages caused by the loss of connectivity by mine tailings storage dams (TSDs), hypothesizing that headwater fish assemblages are restructured by TSDs located downstream, even though the upstream habitats are not altered. We used standard methods to collect fish in 24 first to third order sites, with half draining to TSDs (dammed) and the other half free from this impact (undammed). To identify differences between treatments, we used PERMANOVA to test both environmental variables and ichthyofauna composition (Bray-Curtis similarity index) and evaluated the biological metrics that most influenced assemblage composition change. As expected, we observed no difference between treatments for environmental variables, but we did observe differences in fish assemblage composition. We also observed five metrics with lower values in dammed streams (richness and abundance of intolerant species, siluriform richness, and abundance of Pareiorhaphis cf. proskynita and Trichomycterus brasiliensis) and two metrics with higher values in dammed streams (perciform richness and abundance of Oligosarcus argenteus). We believe these changes resulted from of stream fragmentation by TSDs, in addition to source-sink mechanisms and conclude that mine TSDs located downstream change headwater fish assemblages, an impact often neglected in biomonitoring and bioassessment studies.