IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v1y2018i4d10.1038_s41893-018-0048-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of coal mining on stream biodiversity in the US and its regulatory implications

Author

Listed:
  • Xingli Giam

    (The University of Tennessee)

  • Julian D. Olden

    (University of Washington)

  • Daniel Simberloff

    (The University of Tennessee)

Abstract

Coal mining is a major cause of land-use change in the US, and according to the Energy Information Administration it is expected to remain a key part of the national electricity portfolio until at least 2040. It is therefore crucial to understand the environmental impact of coal mining. Although a scientific consensus has emerged that coal mining negatively affects water quality, a quantitative synthesis of biodiversity impacts is currently lacking. Here, we show that mining under current federal statutes—the 1972 Clean Water Act and the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act—has negative implications for freshwater biota. Streams affected by coal mining averaged one-third (32%) lower taxonomic richness and one-half (53%) lower total abundance than unmined streams, with these impacts occurring across all taxa investigated thus far (invertebrates, fish, and salamanders). Even after post-mining reclamation, biodiversity impacts persisted. Our investigation demonstrates that current US regulations are insufficient to fully protect stream biodiversity.

Suggested Citation

  • Xingli Giam & Julian D. Olden & Daniel Simberloff, 2018. "Impact of coal mining on stream biodiversity in the US and its regulatory implications," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 1(4), pages 176-183, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:1:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1038_s41893-018-0048-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-018-0048-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0048-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-018-0048-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Feng & Yuichi Onda & Yoshifumi Wakiyama & Keisuke Taniguchi & Asahi Hashimoto & Yupan Zhang, 2022. "Persistent impact of Fukushima decontamination on soil erosion and suspended sediment," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 879-889, October.
    2. S. Vögele & K. Govorukha & P. Mayer & I. Rhoden & D. Rübbelke & W. Kuckshinrichs, 2023. "Effects of a coal phase-out in Europe on reaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 879-916, January.
    3. De Valck, Jeremy & Williams, Galina & Kuik, Swee, 2021. "Does coal mining benefit local communities in the long run? A sustainability perspective on regional Queensland, Australia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Ranjan, Ram, 2019. "Assessing the impact of mining on deforestation in India," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 23-35.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:1:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1038_s41893-018-0048-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.