Sediment-porewater-biota partitioning of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in an urban intertidal marsh
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Bodega Bay Inst., Berkeley, CA (United States)
Quantifying the distribution of these hydrophobic organic compounds in situ is key to understanding their fate and effects in aquatic ecosystems. In particular, field data are needed to assess/validate/invalidate the relevance of chemical-specific sediment quality criteria which are derived from equilibrium partitioning models. A field-based study in San Francisco Bay designed to investigate seasonal and spatial variations has revealed that the in situ partitioning of pyrogenically-derived PAHs between sediments and porewaters as measured by K{sub oc}{prime} was an order of magnitude higher during the wet season than during the dry season. Moreover, K{sub oc}{prime} increased along an intertidal gradient accompanied by a corresponding increase in sediment fines, organic carbon and PAH concentration. In addition, BSAFs for two species of bivalves and a composite of polychaetes collected in the marsh were negatively correlated with log K{sub ow}. Moreover, BSAFs were consistently less during the wet season and also decreased along the same intertidal gradient providing further evidence that both partitioning and bioavailability are affected by a heterogeneous interaction between PAHs and sediments contaminated with urban runoff and/or depositional sources which are suspected to be enriched with a highly aromatic soot-like organic matrix. These findings suggest that simple equilibrium models may not accurately predict the partitioning and bioavailability of combustion-source PAHs in sediments which are contaminated primarily via an urban landscape.
- OSTI ID:
- 458311
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961149--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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