Sun Yuwei, Zhang Ruiqing, Ma Ruipeng, Zhou Haijun, Zhang Fujin, Guo Guanghui, Li Huixian, Lü Changwei
School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, Inner Mongolia, China.
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 May;28(18):23123-23132. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-12349-3. Epub 2021 Jan 13.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are typical toxic organic pollutants that can accumulate in sediments and may be toxic to aquatic organisms. In the present study, the contamination level, composition pattern, and sources of sixteen PAHs listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency were investigated in surface sediments and a sediment core from Daihai Lake, which is located in a typical semiarid area of Inner Mongolia, China, and the ecological risk of these PAHs was assessed. The results show that the total concentration of PAHs in the surface sediments ranged from 204.6 to 344.5 ng/g with an average value of 287.2 ng/g and that compared with other aquatic systems, the level of PAHs in the sediments from Daihai Lake was low. However, a general upward trend was observed for the concentrations of PAHs in the sediment core, which might be related to the increase in human activities in the area. Moreover, the PAH concentrations were significantly positively correlated with the total organic carbon (TOC) content in the sediments, and it is thus inferred that TOC regulates the distribution of PAHs in Daihai Lake. Three-ring and four-ring PAHs were found to be predominant in all the sediment samples, and phenanthrene (Phe) was the most abundant compound. According to the composition of PAHs and the anthracene (Ant)/(Ant+Phe) or fluoranthene (Flt)/(Flt+pyrene (Pyr)) ratios, the PAHs in Daihai Lake mainly originated from the combustion of domestic coal, grass, and wood, and petroleum cannot be ignored as a source considering the growth of industry. Risk assessment based on a comparison of PAH concentrations and the effect range low (ERL) and effect range median (ERM) values demonstrated that acenaphthene (Ace) at 11 sites and fluorene (Flu) at 7 sites had occasional adverse biological effects.
多环芳烃（PAHs）是典型的有毒有机污染物，可在沉积物中累积，对水生生物可能有毒害作用。在本研究中，对中国内蒙古典型半干旱地区岱海湖的表层沉积物和一根沉积岩芯中美国环境保护局列出的16种多环芳烃的污染水平、组成模式及来源进行了调查，并评估了这些多环芳烃的生态风险。结果表明，表层沉积物中多环芳烃的总浓度在204.6至344.5纳克/克之间，平均值为287.2纳克/克，与其他水生系统相比，岱海湖沉积物中的多环芳烃水平较低。然而，沉积岩芯中多环芳烃的浓度呈现出总体上升趋势，这可能与该地区人类活动的增加有关。此外，多环芳烃浓度与沉积物中的总有机碳（TOC）含量显著正相关，因此推断TOC调节了岱海湖多环芳烃的分布。在所有沉积物样品中，三环和四环多环芳烃占主导地位，菲（Phe）是含量最高的化合物。根据多环芳烃的组成以及蒽（Ant）/（Ant+Phe）或荧蒽（Flt）/（Flt+芘（Pyr））比值，岱海湖中的多环芳烃主要源于民用煤、草和木材的燃烧，考虑到工业的发展，石油作为一个来源也不容忽视。基于多环芳烃浓度与效应范围低值（ERL）和效应范围中值（ERM）的比较进行的风险评估表明，11个位点的苊（Ace）和7个位点的芴（Flu）偶尔会产生不利的生物效应。
