ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Legacy of a half century of Athabasca oil sands development recorded by lake ecosystems.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 279 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sulfur-Containing Heterocyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Alter Estrogen Metabolism and Cause DNA Damage and Apoptosis in Granulosa Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Organic carbon dry deposition outpaces atmospheric processing with unaccounted implications for air quality and freshwater ecosystems.Science advances · 2025Article
- Alkylated Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds in Road Runoff Are an Environmental Risk and Should Be Included in Future Investigations.Environmental toxicology and chemistry · 2022Article
- A decadal synthesis of atmospheric emissions, ambient air quality, and deposition in the oil sands region.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- A critical review of the ecological status of lakes and rivers from Canada's oil sands region.Integrated environmental assessment and management · 2022Review
- Under the radar: long-term perspectives on ecological changes in lakes.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Incorporating a non-reactive heavy metal simulation module into SWAT model and its application in the Athabasca oil sands region.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2019Article
- Sediment evidence of industrial leakage-induced asynchronous changes in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace metals from a sub-trophic lake, southwest China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2018Article
- Differences between measured and reported volatile organic compound emissions from oil sands facilities in Alberta, Canada.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Article
- Temporal variation in the deposition of polycyclic aromatic compounds in snow in the Athabasca Oil Sands area of Alberta.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2016Article
- Examining spatial patterns in polycyclic aromatic compounds measured in stream macroinvertebrates near a small subarctic oil and gas operation.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2016Article
- Article
- Acid deposition in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region: a policy perspective.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2015Article
- Reply to Ahad et al.: Source apportionment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Athabasca oil sands region is still a work in progress.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Evaporative emissions from tailings ponds are not likely an important source of airborne PAHs in the Athabasca oil sands region.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Quantification of 21 metabolites of methylnaphthalenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in human urine.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2014Article
- Unravelling the complexity of pollution by the oil sands industry.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Evaluating officially reported polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emissions in the Athabasca oil sands region with a multimedia fate model.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Cancer risk to First Nations' people from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons near in-situ bitumen extraction in Cold Lake, Alberta.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2014Article
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The absence of well-executed environmental monitoring in the Athabasca oil sands (Alberta, Canada) has necessitated the use of indirect approaches to determine background conditions of freshwater ecosystems before development of one of the Earth's largest energy deposits. Here, we use highly resolved lake sediment records to provide ecological context to ∼50 y of oil sands development and other environmental changes affecting lake ecosystems in the region. We show that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) within lake sediments, particularly C1-C4-alkylated PAHs, increased significantly after development of the bitumen resource began, followed by significant increases in dibenzothiophenes. Total PAH fluxes in the modern sediments of our six study lakes, including one site ∼90 km northwest of the major development area, are now ∼2.5-23 times greater than ∼1960 levels. PAH ratios indicate temporal shifts from primarily wood combustion to petrogenic sources that coincide with greater oil sands development. Canadian interim sediment quality guidelines for PAHs have been exceeded since the mid-1980s at the most impacted site. A paleoecological assessment of Daphnia shows that this sentinel zooplankter has not yet been negatively impacted by decades of high atmospheric PAH deposition. Rather, coincident with increases in PAHs, climate-induced shifts in aquatic primary production related to warmer and drier conditions are the primary environmental drivers producing marked daphniid shifts after ∼1960 to 1970. Because of the striking increase in PAHs, elevated primary production, and zooplankton changes, these oil sands lake ecosystems have entered new ecological states completely distinct from those of previous centuries.
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