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Limnology Of Four Bauxite Open-Pit Lakes, George L. Harp, Ronald D. Hubbard

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

The aquatic flora and fauna and 18 physicochemical characteristics of four bauxite open-pit lakes were studied from September 1969 to August 1970. The least acid lake (pH 3.4-4.4) supported 49 different aquatic insects, plankton, and higher aquatic plants. The most acid lake (pH 2.7-3.2) supported only 26 different plants and animals. Bauxite open-pit lakes within the pH range studied appear to be as relatively unproductive as their coal strip-mine lake counterparts, with which they share physicochemical and biological characteristics. Benthic macrofaunal diversity and abundance appear to be related more closely to distribution and abundance of leaf detritus than to hydrogen-ion …