The health of fish is a primary indicator of ecosystem response in the Oil Sands Region of northeastern Alberta. However, industrial activity is accompanied by other stressors, such as the discharge of sewage, municipal activity, forest fires, and natural weathering and erosion of bitumen. To combat the spatial confounding influences, we examined white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) captured in the Athabasca River at sites over time (2011–2019) and included covariates to account for the possible sources of influence. The analyses suggest spatially heterogeneous influences of natural factors on fish, such as discharge and air temperature, but also the influence of sewage phosphorus and precipitation. Among the stressors examined here, precipitation may be the most complex and may include a mixture of sources including inputs from tributaries, urban activity, industrial development, and forest fires. Although suggestive, the attribution of variance and detection of changes are affected by sample sizes in some years; these analyses may have missed effects or misspecified important relationships, especially in males. Despite these limitations, the analyses suggest potential differences may be associated with precipitation and highlight the need to integrate robust information on known and suspected stressors in future monitoring of aquatic ecosystems in the oil sands region and beyond.

中文翻译：

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在麦克默里堡以北的阿萨巴斯卡河中收集的鱼中检测到的污水磷和干湿沉降的潜在影响

鱼的健康状况是艾伯塔省东北部油砂地区生态系统响应的主要指标。但是，工业活动伴随着其他压力，例如污水排放，市政活动，森林火灾以及自然风化和沥青侵蚀。为了克服空间混杂的影响，我们检查了白色吸盘（Catostomus commersonii ）（2011-2019年）在阿萨巴斯卡河（Athabasca River）的站点中捕获，并包括协变量以说明可能的影响源。分析表明自然因素对鱼类的空间异质性影响，例如排放量和气温，以及污水中磷和降水的影响。在这里考察的压力源中，降水可能是最复杂的，并且可能包含各种来源，包括支流，城市活动，工业发展和森林大火的投入。尽管具有启发性，但在某些年份中，方差的归属和变化的检测受样本量的影响；这些分析可能会遗漏效果或错误指定重要的关系，尤其是在男性中。尽管有这些限制，