Development of the phytoplankton community in a pit-lake in relation to water quality changes

An open pit-lake was formed at a Northern Saskatchewan mine site after flooding with lake water in early 1992. Since then, water and phytoplankton samples have been collected regularly from the artificial lake over seven years. The resulting data set provides a unique opportunity to examine the physical and chemical changes in water quality and phytoplankton community over time. Seventeen major variables were examined in a principal component analysis. Axes 1, 2 and 4 are significantly correlated to other three variables, the number of days (since the first sampling after flooding of the pit), water temperature and depth, respectively. Total suspended solid (TSS), dissolved oxygen, total phosphorus (Total-P), arsenic, and iron decreased over time while Mg, Ca, K, Na, total organic carbon and HCO₃ increased. Canonical correspondence analysis was used to infer the relationship between water quality variables and phytoplankton community structure, which changed substantially over the survey period. TSS, Total-P and arsenic were considered to be the key factors driving the change in phytoplankton community composition.