Impact on aquatic fauna from land use changes in the upstream catchment of Lake Argyle, north west of Western Australia

This thesis documents land use changes associated with the operation of the Argyle Diamond Mine and the impacts on tropical aquatic communities. Changes in sedimentation loads, magnesium sulphate concentrations and aquatic communities were investigated. Isotope analysis was undertaken to understand the structure of food webs for fish and macroinvertebrates. Mining impacted sites (Diptera was most common) had a higher average Chironimidae abundance (tanyponidae and tanytarsini taxa) as compared to non-mining impacted sites where Ephemeroptera was most common.