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Assessment on the distribution and partitioning of perfluorinated compounds in the water and sediment of Nansi Lake, China

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Abstract

In this study, the distribution and partitioning of nine perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in the water and sediment of Nansi Lake were systematically investigated. The total concentration of PFCs was in the range of 38.4–91.4 ng/L in the water and 0.47–1.81 ng/g in the sediment. The concentration of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was the highest in all the homologues in the water and was in the range of 34.9–84.6 ng/L. However, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), PFOA, and perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA) were the predominant PFCs in the sediment, and their levels were similar. The levels of PFOA, PFHpA, PFOS, PFNA, and the total PFCs in the water were relatively higher in the upper region than those in the lower region of Nansi Lake. In the sediment, the levels of PFOA, PFOS, and PFUnDA showed the similar distribution tendency. Industrial wastewater discharged from the cities around Nansi Lake was the main sources of PFCs. The partitioning coefficients (K d ) of PFOA, PFNA, PFDA, and PFOS were in the range of 0.29–0.87, 1.43–2.18, 2.08–3.15, and 2.20–2.80, respectively. Therefore, the log K d of PFDA and PFOS was apparently high as compared to two other compounds. The organic matter content of the sediment had no effect on the partitioning of PFCs between sediment and water in Nansi Lake.

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Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the Encouraging Foundation for Outstanding Youth Scientists of Shandong Province (No. BS2012HZ006), the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51138006), the National Key Research Project on Water Environmental Pollution Control in China (No.2012ZX07313-001), and the First Class General Financial Grant from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No.2013 M540103).

Compliance with Ethical Standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Tourism, Qufu Normal University, Rizhao, 276826, China

    Yuanxin Cao, Xuezhi Cao, Yi Wan & Shiliang Wang

  2. State Key Joint Laboratory on Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Hui Wang & Shiliang Wang

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  1. Yuanxin Cao
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  2. Xuezhi Cao
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Correspondence to Shiliang Wang.

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Cao, Y., Cao, X., Wang, H. et al. Assessment on the distribution and partitioning of perfluorinated compounds in the water and sediment of Nansi Lake, China. Environ Monit Assess 187, 611 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4831-9

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