Are Microcosms Tiny Pit Lakes?

Authors

Mark A. Lund, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Melanie L. Blanchette, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Jahir Gonzalez-Pinto, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow
Rosalind Green
Caroline Mather
Christopher Kleiber
Steven Lee

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publisher

LUT Scientific and Expertise Publications

School

Mine Water and Environment Research Centre

RAS ID

25610

Comments

Lund,M. A., Blanchette, M. L., Gonzalez-Pinto, J. G., Green, R., Mather, C., Kleiber, C., &Lee, S. (2017). Are Microcosms Tiny Pit Lakes?. In 13th International Mine Water Association Congress - Mine Water & Circular Economy (pp 1204-1206).

Available here.

Abstract

Microcosm experiments are frequent precursors to field trials for the treatment of acidic pit lakes using organic matter. We conducted field and microcosm experiments to test the effectiveness of hay to remediate two small, shallow acidic pit lakes. ‘West’ Lake was treated with 19 t of hay and ‘East’ Lake was untreated. Microcosms mimicked key lake trends in water quality, increasing pH and reducing metal concentrations to a greater extent and faster than the field trial. However, microcosms are not tiny pit lakes because they provide an overly optimistic picture of remediation efficacy.

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