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Distribution, sources, and ecological risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments of Daihai Lake in Inner Mongolia, China

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Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are typical toxic organic pollutants that can accumulate in sediments and may be toxic to aquatic organisms. In the present study, the contamination level, composition pattern, and sources of sixteen PAHs listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency were investigated in surface sediments and a sediment core from Daihai Lake, which is located in a typical semiarid area of Inner Mongolia, China, and the ecological risk of these PAHs was assessed. The results show that the total concentration of PAHs in the surface sediments ranged from 204.6 to 344.5 ng/g with an average value of 287.2 ng/g and that compared with other aquatic systems, the level of PAHs in the sediments from Daihai Lake was low. However, a general upward trend was observed for the concentrations of PAHs in the sediment core, which might be related to the increase in human activities in the area. Moreover, the PAH concentrations were significantly positively correlated with the total organic carbon (TOC) content in the sediments, and it is thus inferred that TOC regulates the distribution of PAHs in Daihai Lake. Three-ring and four-ring PAHs were found to be predominant in all the sediment samples, and phenanthrene (Phe) was the most abundant compound. According to the composition of PAHs and the anthracene (Ant)/(Ant+Phe) or fluoranthene (Flt)/(Flt+pyrene (Pyr)) ratios, the PAHs in Daihai Lake mainly originated from the combustion of domestic coal, grass, and wood, and petroleum cannot be ignored as a source considering the growth of industry. Risk assessment based on a comparison of PAH concentrations and the effect range low (ERL) and effect range median (ERM) values demonstrated that acenaphthene (Ace) at 11 sites and fluorene (Flu) at 7 sites had occasional adverse biological effects.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41807343, 41977270, 41503106), Inner Mongolia Natural Science Foundation (2018MS4011), and Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment of China (2018ZX07208-001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Ecology and Environment, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot, 010021, Inner Mongolia, China

    Yuwei Sun, Ruiqing Zhang, Ruipeng Ma & Changwei Lü

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yuwei Sun & Huixian Li

  3. College of Geographical Sciences, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, 010022, Inner Mongolia, China

    Haijun Zhou

  4. Institute of Environmental Resources and Analytical Technique, Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot, 010031, Inner Mongolia, China

    Fujin Zhang

  5. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Guanghui Guo

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  1. Yuwei Sun
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Contributions

YS and RM conducted the experiments and wrote the manuscript; RZ designed the study and wrote the manuscript. HZ, FZ, GG, Hi, and CL revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ruiqing Zhang or Haijun Zhou.

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Sun, Y., Zhang, R., Ma, R. et al. Distribution, sources, and ecological risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the sediments of Daihai Lake in Inner Mongolia, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 23123–23132 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-12349-3

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