Occurrence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the estuarine sediments of the Taihu Lake and their associated toxic effects on aquatic organisms
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Over the past few decades, the environment in the Taihu Lake basin in China has been deteriorated as a result of intense human activity, especially along the lakeside, where human population concentrates (Li Y et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2020). A sharp increase in population and expansion of land-use including agriculture, industry, and tourism are generating elevated local emissions of contaminants, directly affecting the lake environment. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one of the
Study area and sample collection
The Taihu Lake (30°55′40″–31°32′58″ N, 119°52′32″–120°36′10″ E) is the third largest freshwater lake in China, located in the Yangtze River Delta (Fig. 1). The watershed covers an area of approximately 36 900 km2, with a population of more than 37 million, constituting 2.70% of the total population in China. More than 200 rivers flow in the Taihu Lake basin, and over 85% of them are connected to the lake, which receives large amounts of contaminants via riverine runoff (Zhao et al., 2017).
Occurrence of PAHs in estuarine sediments
Differences in PAH concentrations and compositions in the surface sediments of lakeside estuaries in the Taihu Lake are shown in Fig. 2. The 16 PAHs were detected in all samples, with levels ranging between 672.07 and 5 858.34 ng g−1, with a mean value of 2 121.37 ng g−1. The highest PAH concentration was recorded at M9-1 in the ML bay, with a value of 5 858.34 ng g−1. Sediments ranked into four pollution levels on the basis of the concentrations of PAHs: low (< 100 ng g−1), moderate (100–1 000
CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the dammed lakeside city estuaries in the northern Taihu Lake were employed to investigate the distribution, sources, and behavior of PAHs in sediments. The PAH concentrations in the estuarine sediments of the Taihu Lake were higher than those of most remote lakes in China, but lower than those of some lakes abroad. The concentrations of PAHs in the estuarine sediments from the ML bay were lower than those in river sediments, with the opposite phenomenon in the GH bay, which was
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41673107), the National Water Pollution Control and Treatment Science and Technology Major Project, China (No. 2017ZX07203-005), and the Major Project of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, China (No. 20KJA170001).
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