One of the world’s largest, but low-grade, sulfide nickel deposits in northeastern Finland has been exploited by a bioheapleaching technology since 2008. Bioheapleaching is a relatively new, cost-effective technology, but humid climate, e.g., in boreal temperate environments, causes challenges to the management of the water balance in the ore heaps with wide catchment area, and the mining effluents have caused substantial metal and salting contamination of the receiving waterbodies. In our study, the impacts of metal-extracting bioheapleaching mine effluents on muscle and liver element concentrations, body condition, liver and testes mass, and sperm count and motility of male perch Perca fluviatilis were analysed. Liver, testes, and carcass mass of perch in relation to their length were lower in the mining-impacted lakes than in the reference lake, which may be due to the metal contamination, food availability, and energy demand under multistressor conditions. The sperm counts of the males in the mining-impacted lakes were lower, but the endurance of their sperm motility was longer than the endurance of sperm of the reference males. These findings suggested that the condition and sperm characteristics of perch were altered in lakes receiving metal mining effluents. Measured variables seem to be useful indicators for metal mining impacts on freshwater fish but only if high natural variation in these characteristics can be controlled by multiyear monitoring scheme.

自2008年以来，生物堆浸技术已开采了芬兰东北部最大的低品位硫化镍矿床之一。生物堆浸技术是一种相对较新的，具有成本效益的技术，但潮湿的气候（例如在寒带温带环境中）会导致在集水面积大的矿石堆中，水平衡的管理面临挑战，采矿废水已对接收水体造成大量金属和盐分污染。在我们的研究中，金属提取生物堆浸矿山废水对男性鲈鱼Perca fluviatilis的肌肉和肝脏元素浓度，身体状况，肝脏和睾丸质量以及精子数量和运动性的影响被分析。在采矿影响的湖泊中，相对于其长度而言，肝脏，睾丸和car体的鲈鱼质量低于参考湖泊，这可能是由于金属污染，食物供应和多应激条件下的能量需求所致。在受采矿影响的湖泊中，雄性精子的数量较低，但其精子运动力的耐受性比参考雄性精子的耐受性更长。这些发现表明，在接受金属开采废水的湖泊中，鲈鱼的状况和精子特征发生了变化。测得的变量似乎是金属开采对淡水鱼类影响的有用指标，但前提是这些特征的高度自然变化可以通过多年监测计划加以控制。