The application of road de-icing salts has the potential to salinize fresh waters and degrade habitat for aquatic organisms. In the Australian Alps, the ecological effects of even small salinity increases from de-icing may be different than in North America and Europe because of (1) differences in the evolutionary history, and (2) areas with de-icing in Australia are not located in urbanized landscapes where de-icing has been largely studied elsewhere. In this study, we tried to determine the salinity increases attributable to de-icing in Australia and the effects of this increase in salinity to stream macroinvertebrates. We observed increased salt concentrations (as measured by continuous measurements of electrical conductivity (EC) and periodic measurements of chloride concentrations) in streams near two Australian ski resorts, during the snow seasons (June to September) of 2016 to 2018. The maximum EC observed in streams in salted sites near Perisher, New South Wales, was 390 µS cm⁻¹ compared with a maximum of 26.5 µS cm⁻¹ at unsalted sites. Lower EC values (i.e., maximum 61.1 µS cm⁻¹) and short durations of salinity increases in streams near Falls Creek, Victoria, were not expected to cause an adverse biological response. Salt storage in the landscape was evident at salted sites near Perisher where EC was above background levels during periods of the year when no salt was applied to roads. Stream macroinvertebrate community composition differed at sites receiving run-off from road salting activities near Perisher. Abundances of Oligochaeta (worms) (up to 11-fold), Dugesiidae (flat worms) (up to fourfold), and Aphroteniinae (chironomids) (up to 14-fold) increased, whereas Leptophlebiidae (mayflies) decreased by up to 100% compared with non-salted sites. The taxa that were less abundant where de-icing salts were present tended to be the same taxa that toxicity testing revealed to be relatively salt sensitive species. This study demonstrates a causal link between de-icing salts, elevated stream salinity, and altered macroinvertebrate community composition in streams that received run-off from road de-icing activity in the Australian Alps.

道路除冰盐的应用有可能使淡水盐化并退化水生生物的栖息地。在澳大利亚阿尔卑斯山，由于（1）进化历史的差异，以及（2）澳大利亚有除冰的地区不位于城市化景观中，除冰已在其他地方得到广泛研究。在这项研究中，我们试图确定可归因于澳大利亚除冰的盐度增加以及盐度增加对流大型无脊椎动物的影响。我们观察到两个澳大利亚滑雪胜地附近的溪流中盐浓度增加（通过连续测量电导率 (EC) 和定期测量氯化物浓度来测量），^-1与无盐位点的最大值 26.5 µS cm ^-1相比。较低的 EC 值（即最大 61.1 µS cm ^-1) 和维多利亚州 Falls Creek 附近溪流中的短期盐度增加预计不会引起不利的生物反应。在 Perisher 附近的盐渍地，景观中的盐储存很明显，在一年中没有向道路施盐的时期，EC 高于背景水平。在 Perisher 附近接受道路盐渍活动径流的地点，河流大型无脊椎动物群落组成不同。Oligochaeta（蠕虫）（高达 11 倍）、Dugesiidae（扁平蠕虫）（高达 4 倍）和 Aphroteniinae（摇蚊）（高达 14 倍）的丰度增加，而 Leptophlebiidae（蜉蝣）减少高达 100%与非盐渍地相比。存在除冰盐的较少丰富的分类群往往与毒性测试显示对盐敏感的物种相同的分类群。