Effects of stripmining on fish and diatoms in streams of the New River drainage basin

Contour mining for coal as has been practiced in the New River drainage basin of East Tennessee profoundly affects population size, species richness, and species equitability of aquatic organisms inhabiting streams draining the mined areas. Fish and diatom communities have been sampled over a three year period from four small watersheds, one undisturbed and three with strip mine activity. Diatom species diversity was significantly greater in the control stream where more than twice as many species of diatoms were found than in the mine-disturbed streams. Semotilus atromaculatus, the creek chub, composed 95 to 98% of the fish population in the mined basins. Darters were absent except in the control stream. The trend for both fish and diatoms was toward smaller populations and fewer species of less equitable distribution with increasing mine activity. Changes observed in community structure of organisms in these streams could not be explained by differences in water quality other than those related to increased runoff, sediment load, and siltation caused by mining activity.