{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,7]],"date-time":"2026-10-07T13:43:32Z","timestamp":1791380612615,"version":"4.3.3"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]],"date-time":"2025-03-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740960000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Great Lakes Fisheries Commission","award":["Not applicable"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Not applicable"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Copper (Cu) stamp mill mining in North America from the early 1900s produced a pulverized ore by-product now known as stamp sands (SS). In a mining operation near the city of Gay (Michigan, USA), SS were originally deposited near a Lake Superior beach, but erosion and wave action have moved many SS into beaches and reefs that are critical spawning and nursery areas for native fish (e.g., Lake Whitefish). Larval and juvenile native fish consume zooplankton and benthic invertebrates during their development, and many of these invertebrate taxa may be sensitive to metal contamination from the SS. Here, we sampled the invertebrate community from beaches with high SS, moderate SS and low SS, as well as a control beach 58 km from the source of the SS. The high SS site was characterized by fewer benthic taxa, and less density of several taxa than the low SS site, especially benthic copepods. All beaches had comparable zooplankton diversity, but the abundance was ~\u20092 orders of magnitude lower at the high SS site. Cu and several other metals were elevated at beaches with more SS. We found support for associations between benthic density and diversity with depth (positive effect) and Cu concentration (negative effect). Cu concentration was a better predictor of declines in benthic invertebrate abundance and diversity than SS although sensitivity to Cu varied among taxa. We also observed that the relationship between Cu concentration and SS was non-linear, and highly variable. For example, 149\u2009mg Cu\/kg dry weight sediment is a consensus threshold used in the literature to identify Cu toxicity, but the prediction interval for estimating that concentration of Cu from measurements of SS is 26-851\u2009mg Cu\/kg dry weight. A better predictive model of this relationship would be beneficial to develop an understanding of what level of SS reduction would prevent Cu impacts on invertebrates.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0318980","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]],"date-time":"2025-03-03T18:24:31Z","timestamp":1741026271000},"page":"e0318980","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Effect of copper mill waste material on benthic invertebrates and zooplankton diversity and abundance"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"20","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6414-9758","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"James H.","family":"Larson","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael R.","family":"Lowe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sean W.","family":"Bailey","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amanda H.","family":"Bell","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Danielle M.","family":"Cleveland","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]]},"reference":[{"issue":"4","key":"pone.0318980.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"721","DOI":"10.1016\/S0380-1330(99)70772-0","article-title":"Release of Copper from Mine Tailings on the Keweenaw Peninsula","volume":"25","author":"J Jeong","year":"1999","journal-title":"J Gt Lakes Res"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"594","DOI":"10.1016\/S0380-1330(99)70764-1","article-title":"Copper mining, copper cycling and mercury in the Lake Superior ecosystem: an introduction","volume":"25","author":"WC Kerfoot","year":"1999","journal-title":"J Great Lakes Res"},{"issue":"13","key":"pone.0318980.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2434","DOI":"10.3390\/rs13132434","article-title":"Coastal remote sensing: merging physical, chemical, and biological data as tailings drift onto buffalo reef, lake superior","volume":"13","author":"WC Kerfoot","year":"2021","journal-title":"Remote Sens (Basel)"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0318980.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"749","DOI":"10.4319\/lo.2012.57.3.0749","article-title":"Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and multispectral studies of disturbed Lake Superior coastal environments","volume":"57","author":"WC Kerfoot","year":"2012","journal-title":"Limnol Oceanogr"},{"issue":"5","key":"pone.0318980.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"872","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jglr.2019.07.009","article-title":"Lidar (light detection and ranging) and benthic invertebrate investigations: migrating tailings threaten buffalo reef in lake superior","volume":"45","author":"WC Kerfoot","year":"2019","journal-title":"J Gt Lakes Res"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0318980.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"276","DOI":"10.1016\/S0380-1330(02)70583-2","article-title":"Mapping stamp sand dynamics: gay, Michigan","volume":"28","author":"T Rasmussen","year":"2002","journal-title":"J Gt Lakes Res"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref007","article-title":"Atlas of the spawning and nursery areas of great lakes fishes. volume 1: spawning and nursery areas of great lakes fishes: a summary by geographic area","author":"CS Goodyear","year":"1982"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref008","unstructured":"Chiriboga ED, Mattes WP. 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MI\/DEQ\/WRD-12\/023. 2012."},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref010","article-title":"Modeling sediment transport in grand traverse bay, Michigan to determine effectiveness of proposed revetment at reducing transport of stamp sands onto buffalo reef","author":"EJ Hayter","year":"2015"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref011","article-title":"Biological and commercial catch statistics from the chippewa inter-tribal gill net fishery within Michigan waters of lake superior during 2018. administrative report 20-09","author":"WP Mattes","year":"2020"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref012","article-title":"Log of activities during observation of tribal fisheries crew netting juvenile whitefish in lake superior","author":"D Premo","year":"2008"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref013","unstructured":"Ebener MP, Dunlop ES, Muir AM. 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Toxicol Chem"},{"issue":"12","key":"pone.0318980.ref050","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6835","DOI":"10.1021\/es2045844","article-title":"Sub-Lethal Effects of Copper to benthic invertebrates explained by sediment properties and dietary exposure","volume":"46","author":"O Campana","year":"2012","journal-title":"Environ Sci Technol"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0318980.ref051","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"57","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00010989","article-title":"Comparison of the relative sensitivity of three benthic invertebrates to copper-contaminated sediments from the Keweenaw Waterway","volume":"262","author":"CW West","year":"1993","journal-title":"Hydrobiologia"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref052","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"297","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2015.06.071","article-title":"Ecotoxicity of sediments in rivers: Invertebrate community, toxicity bioassays and the toxic unit approach as complementary assessment tools","volume":"540","author":"N de Castro-Catal\u00e0","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sci Total Environ"},{"key":"pone.0318980.ref053","article-title":"A sediment chemistry of lake superior shoreline in the vicinity of gay, Keweenaw and Houghton Counties, Michigan. MI\/DEQ\/WRD-12\/023","author":"MDEQ (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality)","year":"2012"},{"issue":"1-3","key":"pone.0318980.ref054","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2007.06.023","article-title":"Chronic toxicity of copper to five benthic invertebrates in laboratory-formulated sediment: Sensitivity comparison and preliminary risk assessment","volume":"387","author":"YE Roman","year":"2007","journal-title":"Sci Total Environ"}],"container-title":["PLOS ONE"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0318980","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]],"date-time":"2025-03-03T18:24:59Z","timestamp":1741026299000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0318980"}},"subtitle":[],"editor":[{"given":"Phuping","family":"Sucharitakul","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"editor"}]}],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]]},"references-count":54,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]]}},"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0318980","relation":{},"ISSN":["1932-6203"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1932-6203","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]]}}}