『Abstract
The long term impacts of acid mine drainage (AMD) on stream chemistry
and regional carbon and sulfur budgets were explored using watersheds
of Pennsylvania underlain by extensive coal deposits. Areas of
these watersheds have been mined for 200 yr, yet mining activity
decreased to <2% of peak by the late 1900s. A unique aspect of
this study was the coupling of 100 yr of data on stream chemistry
measurements with detailed coal mining data, which allowed for
new budgets of the impact of mining on regional and global budgets.
The Lackawanna River and upper Schuylkill River, both 〜900 km2
watersheds, witnessed dramatic changes in pH, alkalinity, calcium,
magnesium and sulfate. Sulfate fluxes from these watersheds, for
instance, were 4-12 times higher in the 1940s than they are currently.
Fluxes of sulfate and magnesium from the Susquehanna River at
Danville, the major tributary to the Chesapeake Bay, are currently
32 and 70% of what they were in the 1940s, while alkalinity fluxes
have doubled and pH has recovered 0.8 pH units. The direct impact
on regional carbon budgets through the degassing of CO2
from carbonates was intense during the height of AMD but the long
term regional impact is modest, resulting in the loss of 〜3.1
Tg of carbon to the atmosphere over the last century. During the
1940s, the export of AMD derived sulfate to the 29,000 km2
portion of the Susquehanna River studied here was twice as large
as the current input from SOx deposition
to the entire 71,000 km2 Susquehanna watershed. This
is surprising, comparing the small spatial footprint of AMD to
the large footprint of the entire Susquehanna watershed. Normalizing
these export rates to coal production data we estimate that global
sulfur releases from AMD could account for 28-40% of riverine
sulfate derived from pyrite oxidation, and be equal to 〜20% of
anthropogenic S from atmospheric deposition. This study emphasizes
the potential importance of AMD to global S budgets, particularly
since coal mining is predicted to increase by 50% in the coming
century.
Keywords: sulfur; acid rain; CO2; carbon;
acid mine drainage; pH; atmospheric deposition; Chesapeake Bay;
Susquehanna; Schuylkill; ocean acidification』
1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
4.1. Impact on carbon budgets
4.2. Impact on sulfur budgets
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Appendix A. Supplementary data
References