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Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia

Mongolia is a country with a quickly growing economy mainly based on mining of gold, copper, coal, and other minerals. Mining, urbanization, and agriculture impact the water quality in the upper Selenga River Basin in northern Mongolia, which is the center of the Mongolian economy. Previous measurem...

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Autores principales: Narangarvuu, Dashdondog, Enkhdul, Tuuguu, Erdenetsetseg, Erdenesukh, Enkhrii-Ujin, Enkhbat, Irmuunzaya, Khurtsbaatar, Batbayar, Gunsmaa, Oyundelger, Khurelpurev, Yam, Rita Sau-Wai, Pfeiffer, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10661730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37985477
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12022-x
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author Narangarvuu, Dashdondog
Enkhdul, Tuuguu
Erdenetsetseg, Erdenesukh
Enkhrii-Ujin, Enkhbat
Irmuunzaya, Khurtsbaatar
Batbayar, Gunsmaa
Oyundelger, Khurelpurev
Yam, Rita Sau-Wai
Pfeiffer, Martin
author_facet Narangarvuu, Dashdondog
Enkhdul, Tuuguu
Erdenetsetseg, Erdenesukh
Enkhrii-Ujin, Enkhbat
Irmuunzaya, Khurtsbaatar
Batbayar, Gunsmaa
Oyundelger, Khurelpurev
Yam, Rita Sau-Wai
Pfeiffer, Martin
author_sort Narangarvuu, Dashdondog
collection PubMed
description Mongolia is a country with a quickly growing economy mainly based on mining of gold, copper, coal, and other minerals. Mining, urbanization, and agriculture impact the water quality in the upper Selenga River Basin in northern Mongolia, which is the center of the Mongolian economy. Previous measurements of pollution loads were alarming, but restricted to chemical measurements. Here, for the first time, we combine freshwater biomonitoring and laboratory water quality data across a broad gradient of water quality and land use intensity. We track the effects of different types of pollution on aquatic invertebrates and test their use as bioindicators. We collected water samples, environmental parameters, and macroinvertebrates at 36 sampling sites at the rivers of Tuul, Kharaa, and Orkhon and their tributaries Sugnugur, Boroo, Sharyn Gol, Gatsuurt, and Yeröö. PCA of catchment water quality distinguished three groups of pollutants prevalent at the sites: (1) nutrients, (2) saline components (Cl(-), Na (+), Mg(2+), SO(4)(2-), Ca(2+)) and mining by-products (B, Sr, U, Mo), and (3) (heavy) metals, which often exceeded regulatory standards. We recorded a total of 59 macroinvertebrate taxa belonging to 32 families in seven insect orders plus Amphipoda and Gastropoda. Species diversity declined with higher impact. Five environmental factors structured macroinvertebrate community composition in RDA: elevation of sample location, site total nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, and water chemistry. We conclude that macroinvertebrate communities are an appropriate and inexpensive tool for monitoring water quality in Mongolia and suggest government action to establish a long-term monitoring program. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10661-023-12022-x.
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spelling pubmed-106617302023-11-20 Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia Narangarvuu, Dashdondog Enkhdul, Tuuguu Erdenetsetseg, Erdenesukh Enkhrii-Ujin, Enkhbat Irmuunzaya, Khurtsbaatar Batbayar, Gunsmaa Oyundelger, Khurelpurev Yam, Rita Sau-Wai Pfeiffer, Martin Environ Monit Assess Research Mongolia is a country with a quickly growing economy mainly based on mining of gold, copper, coal, and other minerals. Mining, urbanization, and agriculture impact the water quality in the upper Selenga River Basin in northern Mongolia, which is the center of the Mongolian economy. Previous measurements of pollution loads were alarming, but restricted to chemical measurements. Here, for the first time, we combine freshwater biomonitoring and laboratory water quality data across a broad gradient of water quality and land use intensity. We track the effects of different types of pollution on aquatic invertebrates and test their use as bioindicators. We collected water samples, environmental parameters, and macroinvertebrates at 36 sampling sites at the rivers of Tuul, Kharaa, and Orkhon and their tributaries Sugnugur, Boroo, Sharyn Gol, Gatsuurt, and Yeröö. PCA of catchment water quality distinguished three groups of pollutants prevalent at the sites: (1) nutrients, (2) saline components (Cl(-), Na (+), Mg(2+), SO(4)(2-), Ca(2+)) and mining by-products (B, Sr, U, Mo), and (3) (heavy) metals, which often exceeded regulatory standards. We recorded a total of 59 macroinvertebrate taxa belonging to 32 families in seven insect orders plus Amphipoda and Gastropoda. Species diversity declined with higher impact. Five environmental factors structured macroinvertebrate community composition in RDA: elevation of sample location, site total nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, and water chemistry. We conclude that macroinvertebrate communities are an appropriate and inexpensive tool for monitoring water quality in Mongolia and suggest government action to establish a long-term monitoring program. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10661-023-12022-x. Springer International Publishing 2023-11-20 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC10661730/ /pubmed/37985477 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12022-x Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research
Narangarvuu, Dashdondog
Enkhdul, Tuuguu
Erdenetsetseg, Erdenesukh
Enkhrii-Ujin, Enkhbat
Irmuunzaya, Khurtsbaatar
Batbayar, Gunsmaa
Oyundelger, Khurelpurev
Yam, Rita Sau-Wai
Pfeiffer, Martin
Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title_full Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title_fullStr Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title_full_unstemmed Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title_short Mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper Selenga River Basin, Mongolia
title_sort mining and urbanization affect river chemical water quality and macroinvertebrate communities in the upper selenga river basin, mongolia
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10661730/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37985477
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12022-x
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