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Study

Citation

Hitt, N., & Chambers, D. (2014). Temporal changes in taxonomic and functional diversity of fish assemblages downstream from mountaintop mining. Freshwater Science.

Study description

This study examined the effects of mountain top mining on fish assemblage structure and function via sampling in the Guyandotte River basin of West Virginia.

Response

Cause term/trajectory

Effluent - mining (Increase)

Cause description

Connection of the mining effluent to the river, which is enumerated by conductivity and dissolved Se.

Effect term/trajectory

Fish - richness (Decrease)

Effect description

Measures of taxonomic diversity (species richness, abundance, Shannon diversity) and functional diversity (functional richness, functional evenness, functional divergence)

Response measure type

Mean difference

Response measure value

2.3

Response measure error type

95% confidence interval

Documentation

Figure 2 and Table 2, p. 919-920

Response measure description

We assessed significance from the proportion of the simulated assemblage comparisons that were more extreme than the observed differences (i.e., type I error rate).

Design

Source data

Field

Study type

Observation

Study design

Control/reference vs. treatment/impact (no before)

Number of independent control or reference sampling units

4

Number of indendent impact or treatment sampling units

6

Sample size used in analysis

2669 individuals, 34 species, 6 families

Design description

We blocknetted reaches and collected fishes with 3-pass electrofishing with 2 backpacks at the exposure site and 1 at the reference site.

Context

Climate

Temperate

Country

United States

Habitat

Stream/river

Spatial extent

Drainage basin

Temporal extent

Other

Context description

Temporal extent was snapshot or years (depending on analysis)