Testate amoebae as indicators of hydrologic change during a period of adverse mining pollution in Sudbury (ON).

Mitchell Samantha, Nathan Basiliko, Peter Beckett, Colin McCarter, Ellie Goud, Pete Whittington, Florin Pendea

Testate amoebae (TA) are reliable indicators of hydrologic change and disturbance within peatland systems. There is a need for a historic baseline of hydrologic conditions for ongoing restoration work (e.g. McCarter et al. 2024) within the contaminated peatlands of Sudbury. This work aims to enhance Sphagnum moss recovery to mitigate toxic metal remobilization risk from drought and wildfire. To that purpose this study reconstructs the hydrologic change of peatlands in the Greater Sudbury Area (ON) across a pollution gradient (increased distance from pollution smelter correlates with lessened impacts) using testate amoebae. Preliminary results show sites farthest away from the pollution centre have a relatively unchanged TA assemblage for the peatlands analyzed history. Sites closer to the smelter centre experience drastic TA assemblage changes around the time that mining pollution began. This trends in TA assemblages indicate trends in the hydrology and disturbance of these peatlands’ sites. Future work for this study involves analyzing the TA data alongside heavy metal, sulphur, carbon (organic & inorganic) and macrofossils to provide a big picture look at historic ecological trends in these peatlands, and to better explain the factors involved in these changes to support restoration efforts.