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Spatial variation of PAHs and PCBs in coastal air, seawater, and sediments in a heavily industrialized region

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Abstract

Concurrent coastal seawater (n = 22), sediment (n = 22), and atmospheric samples (n = 10) were collected in the Aliaga industrial region, Turkey, to explore the spatial variation, sources, and air-seawater exchange of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Seawater Σ16PAH concentrations (particle + dissolved) ranged between 5107 and 294,624 pg L−1, while Σ41PCB concentrations were in the range of 880–50,829 pg L−1. Levels in sediments were highly variable ranging between 35.5–49,682 and 2.7–2450 μg kg−1 in dry weight for Σ16PAHs and Σ41PCBs, respectively. Atmospheric concentrations varied between 1791–274,974 and 104–20,083 pg m−3 for Σ16PAHs and Σ41PCBs, respectively. Sediment organic matter (OM) content and levels of Σ16PAHs and Σ41PCBs correlated weakly (r 2 = 0.19–0.23, p < 0.05) suggesting that the spatial variations of PAHs and PCBs were mainly affected by local sources rather than their sorption to OM. The geographical distribution of PAH and PCB concentrations in air, seawater, and sediment and factor analysis on the sediment levels pointed out that the major sources in the region are steel plants, petroleum refinery, petrochemical complex, ship breaking, loading/unloading activities at the ports, vehicular emissions, and fossil fuel combustion emissions. The direction of the air-seawater exchange was also explored by estimating seawater fugacity fractions of PAHs and PCBs. For PAHs, the number of cases implying deposition (43.0%) and volatilization (39.5%) was similar, while for PCBs, the number of cases implying volatilization (60.4%) was much higher compared to deposition (21.6%). Fugacity fractions were generally <0.36 (deposition) at the sites close to industrial and ship breaking activities where the highest seawater and sediment levels were measured, implying that atmospheric deposition is an important mechanism affecting seawater and sediment PAH and PCB levels.

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Acknowledgments

The present study was supported in part by the “Assessment of current status of Aliaga industrial region for air pollution” project conducted by Dokuz Eylul University for the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanism and for the industries located in Aliaga region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, Tinaztepe Campus, 35160, Izmir, Turkey

    Mustafa Odabasi, Yetkin Dumanoglu, Melik Kara, Hasan Altiok, Tolga Elbir & Abdurrahman Bayram

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  1. Mustafa Odabasi
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  2. Yetkin Dumanoglu
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  3. Melik Kara
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  4. Hasan Altiok
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  6. Abdurrahman Bayram
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Correspondence to Mustafa Odabasi.

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Responsible editor: Hongwen Sun

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Odabasi, M., Dumanoglu, Y., Kara, M. et al. Spatial variation of PAHs and PCBs in coastal air, seawater, and sediments in a heavily industrialized region. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 13749–13759 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8991-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8991-8

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