Copper Concentrations in Five Freshwater Species from Loughberry Lake, Saratoga Springs, NY
Charles Gouin and Matthew Helterline

Loughberry Lake is the Saratoga Springs drinking water supply and has been treated with copper suflate (CuSO 4 ) to control algal blooms dating back to the early 900’s. We examined the concentration of copper in the tissue of five aquatic species in Loughberry Lake. The species examined were Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides), Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus), Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens), Crayfish (family: Cambaridae), and Pumpkinseed Sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus). These species belong to various trophic levels, allowing us to test the hypothesis that copper is biomagnifying in the Loughberry Lake ecosystem. We found higher concentrations of copper in the organ tissue than in the muscle tissue, with the highest concentrations found in crayfish samples. In the pelagic food web evidence for biomagnification was seen, with higher concentrations of copper found in the organs moving up the food chain: 7 ± 2 μg/g for Bluegill, 8 ± 2.9 μg/g for Yellow Perch, and 19 ± 6.5 μg/g for Largemouth Bass (all concentrations are dry weight ratios). However, the results were not statistically significant (One-way ANOVA p-value > 0.05). The benthic feeding
organisms had comparatively high copper concentrations suggesting that their specialized
diet is a better indicator of copper uptake than their trophic level. The Pumpkinseed organ concentrations were found to be 17 ± 0.9 μg/g and the crayfish tissue concentrations were 45 ± 12.5 μg/g.

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