Negombo Lagoon is a highly valued estuary in Sri Lanka due to its high socioeconomic value, but this estuary has undergone many changes since the early 1800s due to human impact. Records of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes, and alkane, alcohol, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and hopane biomarkers from the mid-19th century to 2012 in a sediment core collected from Negombo Lagoon indicate that the lagoon went through two major changes during this 160-year time frame. The first change occurred from 1850 to 1900, where a switch from predominately terrestrial sources of organic material to marine sources is observed, after the Hamilton Canal was built in 1804 to connect the open ocean to the lagoon. The second change occurred post 1940s during Sri Lanka’s industrialization period where high anthropogenic inputs are seen in the estuary, specifically as increases in PAHs and oil-related, diagenetic hopanes. Overall, the Negombo Lagoon appears to be moderately polluted by PAHs with the highest concentrations of parent PAHs measured in the 1980s and likely derived from pyrolytic sources of solid fuel biomass.

尼甘布泻湖因其较高的社会经济价值而成为斯里兰卡备受推崇的河口，但自 1800 年代初以来，由于人类的影响，该河口发生了许多变化。从 19 世纪中叶到 2012 年在尼甘布泻湖收集的沉积岩芯中碳和氮稳定同位素以及烷烃、醇、多环芳烃 (PAH) 和藿烷生物标志物的记录表明，泻湖在这 160 年期间经历了两次重大变化-年的时间框架。第一次变化发生在 1850 年至 1900 年，在 1804 年建造汉密尔顿运河以连接公海和泻湖之后，观察到有机物质从主要来自陆地的有机物质来源转变为海洋来源。第二个变化发生在 1940 年代之后斯里兰卡的工业化时期，河口出现了大量的人为投入，特别是多环芳烃和与石油相关的成岩藿烷的增加。总体而言，尼甘布泻湖似乎受到了多环芳烃的中度污染，在 1980 年代测得的母体多环芳烃浓度最高，可能来自固体燃料生物质的热解来源。