This study provides contamination levels, distributions and source apportionment of PAHs in surface sediments in the mid-Adriatic and along the Croatian coast. Median summed concentrations of parent and alkyl-PAHs are circa 10 times lower in the off-shore transect stations of the mid-Adriatic (22.3 and 18.2 μg.kg⁻¹ d.w.) than the ranges determined at the coastal stations, including those of Kaštela bay (227–331 and 11.7–197 μg.kg⁻¹ d.w., respectively). The highest levels, circa 20 times higher, were found in Šibenik bay (median 6603 and 3051 μg.kg⁻¹). The overall range of PAH concentrations spans more than 2000 times between the lowest and the highest contamination level. The geographical distributions reflect the presence of strong gradients at local and regional scales. A major factor influencing sedimentary PAH distributions at local scale appears to be the distance from their known continental and coastal upstream emission sites (urban, industrial, harbour …), whereas at regional scale, this distribution depends more on the routes of entry of PAHs into the study area. Two combustion and one petroleum model source profiles of PAHs were determined by alternative least square analysis. Benzo[b+j]fluoranthenes and fluoranthene/pyrene are compounds characterizing two pyrogenic sources respectively, while signatures of alkyl-substituted homologues (phenanthrenes/anthracenes, fluranthenes/pyrenes, chrysenes and dibenzothiophenes) delineate a petrogenic source profile. The quantitative apportionment of source contributions shows significant geographical differences, with a dominant petrogenic source found along the mid-Adriatic transect (approximately 74%) and in Kaštela bay (61%). In the coastal sediments about a fifty-fifty contamination mix is assigned to a petrogenic/pyrogenic source of PAHs (47% and 53% respectively), whereas in Šibenik bay a strong predominance is apportioned to the combustion compounds (81%).

这项研究提供了亚得里亚中部和克罗地亚沿海地表沉积物中多环芳烃的污染水平，分布和污染源分配。在亚得里亚海中部近海样带站（22.3和18.2μg.kg ^-1 dw）中，母体和烷基PAHs的总中位浓度比沿海站（包括Kaštela站）确定的范围低约10倍间隔（分别为227–331和11.7–197μg.kg- ¹ dw）。在希贝尼克湾发现的最高水平约为20倍（中值6603和3051μg.kg ^-1）。在最低和最高污染水平之间，PAH的总浓度范围超过2000倍。地理分布反映了地方和区域范围内强梯度的存在。影响局部PAH沉积物分布的主要因素似乎是距已知的大陆和沿海上游排放点（城市，工业，港口等）的距离，而在区域范围内，这种分布更多地取决于PAH进入的途径学习区。通过替代最小二乘分析确定了PAHs的两种燃烧和一种石油模型源曲线。苯并[ b + j荧蒽和荧蒽/ py是分别表征两个热源的化合物，而烷基取代的同系物（菲/蒽，氟蒽/ py，菊和二苯并噻吩）的特征则描述了成岩源剖面。源贡献的定量分配显示出显着的地域差异，沿亚得里亚海中部样带（约占74％）和喀斯特拉湾（占61％）发现了主要的成岩源。在沿海沉积物中，约有五十五十种污染物被归类为多环芳烃的生源/热源来源（分别为47％和53％），而在希贝尼克湾，燃烧化合物占很大比例（81％）。