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Testing Local Adaptation in Five Populations of Hyalella azteca in Northern Alberta’s Oil Sands Region

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Abstract

Canada’s oil sands hold the third largest petroleum reserves worldwide and have experienced rapid economic growth. The oil sands region provides an ideal location for studying local adaptations through reciprocal transplant (RT) because populations within the region have been historically exposed to naturally occurring bitumen. Our objectives were to (1) determine if Hyalella azteca from habitats within the oil sands region exhibited increased tolerance to constituents associated with industrial bitumen extraction compared with H. azteca from habitats outside the region; and (2) determine if any observed tolerance was attributable to local adaptation. Five populations of H. azteca were reciprocally transplanted from reclaimed and reference wetlands: four from local wetlands plus one naïve laboratory population. Survival, toxicity, and behaviour were measured before and after the RT period. Survival varied by population and site. These results show that the differences in responses among populations are likely not attributable to local adaptation and that laboratory populations of H. azteca provide ecologically relevant results when tested in the field.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this research came from the Forest Watershed & Riparian Disturbance Project funded by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council under the Collaborative Research and Development program (Grant No. CRDPJ417741-11) to G. G. P. with support from Suncor Energy Inc., Total E&P Canada Ltd., Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Tervita Corporation, Syncrude Canada Ltd., Alberta Newsprint Company, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Hinton Pulp, Millar Western Forest Products Ltd., Slave Lake Pulp, Oil Sands Research and Information Network, and Environment Canada. G. G. P. is also supported by the Campus Alberta Innovates Program. The authors are grateful to Jim Burchfield for making the LED circuit boards used in the phototaxis assays. They also acknowledge Brian Brassard, Virginia Antoniak, Jaimie Klemish, Anne Willis, and Sylvia Chow for their administrative and field support and Fay Beery for manuscript comments and editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON, P7B 5E1, Canada

    Steven R. Beery

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, 2500 University Dr. NW, Calgary, AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    Patrick T. Gauthier

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada

    Gregory G. Pyle

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  1. Steven R. Beery
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  2. Patrick T. Gauthier
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Correspondence to Steven R. Beery.

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Beery, S.R., Gauthier, P.T. & Pyle, G.G. Testing Local Adaptation in Five Populations of Hyalella azteca in Northern Alberta’s Oil Sands Region. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 72, 189–199 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-016-0351-z

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