Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2013 Sep 16;8(9):e75329. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075329. eCollection 2013.
Mountaintop removal-valley fill coal mining has been associated with a variety of impacts on ecosystem and human health, in particular reductions in the biodiversity of receiving streams. However, effluents emerging from valley fills contain a complex mixture of chemicals including metals, metalloids, and salts, and it is not clear which of these are the most important drivers of toxicity. We found that streamwater and sediment samples collected from mine-impacted streams of the Upper Mud River in West Virginia inhibited the growth of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Next, we took advantage of genetic and transgenic tools available in this model organism to test the hypotheses that the toxicity could be attributed to metals, selenium, oxidative stress, or osmotic stress. Our results indicate that in general, the toxicity of streamwater to C. elegans was attributable to osmotic stress, while the toxicity of sediments resulted mostly from metals or metalloids.
山顶移除-山谷填充采煤与生态系统和人类健康的多种影响有关，特别是接收溪流的生物多样性减少。然而，山谷填充物中的流出物含有复杂的化学混合物，包括金属、类金属和盐，目前尚不清楚这些物质中哪些是毒性的最重要驱动因素。我们发现，从西弗吉尼亚州上泥河受煤矿影响的溪流中采集的水样和沉积物样本抑制了秀丽隐杆线虫的生长。接下来，我们利用该模式生物中的遗传和转基因工具来检验以下假设：毒性可能归因于金属、硒、氧化应激或渗透应激。我们的结果表明，通常情况下，水样对秀丽隐杆线虫的毒性归因于渗透应激，而沉积物的毒性主要来自金属或类金属。
