Abstract
AbstractMany streams of central Pennsylvania are polluted by sulphuric acid from coal mining operations. The most prevalent organism in these streams is an aquatic macrophyte—Eleocharis acicularis (L.) R. and S. (slender spikerush). An experiment using 32P determined that slender spikerush can absorb nutrients into its roots and transport them to the leaves. Chemical analyses of sediment from 14 spikerush sites indicates that these sedges are “generalists” with regard to the chemical parameters, but have a requirement for a predominantly silt‐clay sediment. As an acid tolerant aquatic macrophyte that can inhabit sediment covering a great range of chemical parameters, slender spikerush is ideally suited both functionally (as a primary producer) and structurally (stabilize alluvial sediment and provide physically heterogeneous niches for periphyton and heterotrophic invertebrates), for projects designed to reclaim mine‐acid polluted streams of central Pennsylvania.
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