Bioavailability of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and their Potential Application in Eco-risk Assessment and Source Apportionment in Urban River Sediment.

ABSTRACT: Traditional risk assessment and source apportionment of sediments based on bulk polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can introduce biases due to unknown aging effects in various sediments. We used a mild solvent (hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin) to extract the bioavailable fraction of PAHs (a-PAHs) from sediment samples collected in Pearl River, southern China. We investigated the potential application of this technique for ecological risk assessments and source apportionment. We found that the distribution of PAHs was associated with human activities and that the a-PAHs accounted for a wide range (4.7%-21.2%) of total-PAHs (t-PAHs), and high risk sites were associated with lower t-PAHs but higher a-PAHs. The correlation between a-PAHs and the sediment toxicity assessed using tubificid wor

SUBMITTER: Yang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4791542 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature