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Bioaccumulation and Cycling of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Typical Mangrove Wetlands of Hainan Island, South China

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Abstract

Mangrove wetlands are important coastal ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions, and mangrove sediments and tissues often are the pollutant sinks due to their high organic matter contents. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the mangrove sediments and tissues of nine species from three typical mangrove wetlands of Hainan Island were studied. The average concentration of PAHs in all mangrove tissues was 403 ng g−1 dw, with PAHs concentrations in leaf, branch, root, and fruit of 566, 335, 314, and 353 ng g−1 dw, respectively. PAHs levels were much higher in leaf than in other mangrove tissues, which may be caused partly by atmospheric deposition of PAHs. The dominant individual PAH compounds in mangrove tissues were phenanthrene (41.3%), fluoranthene (14.7%), and pyrene (11.4%), while in sediments were naphthalene (73.4%), phenanthrene (3.9%), and pyrene (3.6%), respectively. The biota-sediment accumulation factors of PAH congeners in the mangrove wetlands showed different patterns, with the most predominant of phenanthrene. The cycling of PAHs in the mangrove wetlands of Hainan Island also were estimated, and the results showed that the standing accumulation, the annual absorption, the annual net retention, the annual return, and the turnover period in all mangrove tissues of the community were 2228 µg m−2, 869 µg m−2 a−1, 206 µg m−2 a−1, 663 µg m−2 a−1, and 3.4 a, respectively. These results indicated that mangroves are playing an important role in retaining PAHs.

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Funding

The present study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41376091) and National Key Basic Research Program of China (2013CB956101) to Y.-W. Qiu. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their comments and constructive suggestions on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Yao-Wen Qiu

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, 430062, China

    Han-Lin Qiu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jun Li & Gan Zhang

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  1. Yao-Wen Qiu
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  2. Han-Lin Qiu
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Correspondence to Yao-Wen Qiu.

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Qiu, YW., Qiu, HL., Li, J. et al. Bioaccumulation and Cycling of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Typical Mangrove Wetlands of Hainan Island, South China. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 75, 464–475 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-018-0548-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-018-0548-4