Identification and Estimation of Origin to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Marin Sediments from The Western Sea of Suo

Abstract

In order to estimate the origin of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface and core sediments from The Western Sea of Suo, the horizontal and the vertical distributions of PAHs and the composition ratio of PAHs (BkF/BaP) in sediments were investigated. Moreover, the topographic factor of this sea area and the relationships between heavy metals concentrations and PAHs concentrations have been investigated. Two compossition ratios of PAHs (BaP/BghiP, BkF/BaP) in atmospheric suspended particulate matter that were admitted a difference to these composition ratios with each emission sources, were util ized to estimate of the origin of PAHs in sediments. On the vertical distribution, an evide nt change appeared in the composition ratio of PAHs (BkF/BaP) in 4045 cm layer, corresponds to about 1920 by ²¹⁰Pb-chronology, at Site 23(Fig.2). On the other hand, surface sediments except for Sites 10, 15, 23 were classified into 2 groups (Cluster A and B) by the Cluster analysis. Significant difference in the composition ratio of PAHs (BkF/BaP) at each Cluster were found (Cluster A: 0.425, Cluster B: O.355). Furthermore, the difference was admitted to the slope of the regression line between Pb concentration and BaP concentration in each Cluster (Cluster A: 0.114, Cluster B: 0.054) (Table 3). At Cluster A, the relationship between Fe concentration and BaP concentration was linear (r=0.829), and PAHs concentrations in sediments correlated negatively with the depth of water (Fig.4). However, the correlation was not admitted between the distance from Site 20 and PAHs concentrations in sediments. On the other hand, the negative correlation was admitted between the distance from Site 20 and PAHs concentrations in sediments at Cluster B (except site 8) (Table 5). As these results, it was estimated that the origin of PAHs at sea area of Cluster A was mobile source and at sea area of Cluster B were both mobile source and industrial source, respectively.