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Field analysis of PAHs in surface sediments of the Pearl River Estuary and their environmental impacts

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Abstract

Based on a monthly field survey in 2011 of the Pearl River Estuary, the dynamics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments (depth < 5 cm) were explored. The seasonal variations in PAH level and composition were investigated in this study, as well as their environmental behaviors, the role of particles, and source apportionment. The concentration of the sum of 16 priority PAHs (defined as ∑16PAHs) ranged from 0.32 to 1.10 μg/g, while that of the sum of 62 PAHs (defined as ∑tPAHs) varied from 0.83 to 2.75 μg/g. The levels of both the ∑16PAHs and ∑tPAHs peaked in February, although the minimum levels appeared in different months—December and August, respectively. The seasonal difference in the ∑tPAHs was significant (flood season, 7.69 μg/g; dry season, 10.51 μg/g). The 5-ring PAH compound (e.g., perylene) was the most abundant and was responsible for 35% of the total, which implied a terrestrial input source via the Pearl River. Sediment particles were predominantly composed of clayed sand, and sediment PAHs showed a greater tendency to be adsorbed onto the large-sized particles rather than the fine fractions. Total organic carbon (TOC) could considerably facilitate the sediment PAHs. Principal component analysis revealed that vehicle emission sources, petroleum sources, and combustion sources were the major anthropogenic contamination sources. The diagnostic ratios of various individual PAHs were also explored. These findings are particularly useful for understanding the geochemistry of organic pollutants in the complex estuarine environment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank LetPub (www.letpub.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2016YFC0402601), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21077139, No. 51709289), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 19lgpy88), and Evaluation Project of Marine Environmental Quality in the Nanhai District (No. DOMEP (MEA)-01-03).

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Author notes

  1. Lixia Niu and Qingshu Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Research, School of Marine Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, People’s Republic of China

    Lixia Niu, Qingshu Yang, Danna Zeng, Huayang Cai, Feng Liu & Xiangxin Luo

  2. Guangdong Provincial Engineering Research Centre of Coasts, Islands and Reefs, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Lixia Niu, Qingshu Yang, Huayang Cai, Feng Liu & Xiangxin Luo

  3. Southern Laboratory of Ocean Science and Engineering, Zhuhai, 519000, People’s Republic of China

    Lixia Niu, Qingshu Yang, Huayang Cai, Feng Liu & Xiangxin Luo

  4. Section of Safety and Security Science, Delft University of Technology, 2628, BX, Delft, the Netherlands

    Pieter van Gelder

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  1. Lixia Niu
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Correspondence to Lixia Niu.

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Niu, L., Yang, Q., van Gelder, P. et al. Field analysis of PAHs in surface sediments of the Pearl River Estuary and their environmental impacts. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 10925–10938 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07689-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-07689-5

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