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n-Alkanes in surficial sediments of Visakhapatnam harbour, east coast of India

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Surface sediments collected from 19 stations along Visakhapatnam harbour were analysed for organic carbon (OC), δ 13Coc, total lipids (TL), total hydrocarbon (THC), n-alkane concentration and composition. OC, δ 13Coc, TL and THC ranged from 0.6% to 7.6%, −29.3 to −23.8‰, 300 to 14,948 \(\upmu \)g g − 1 dw, and 0.2 to 2,277 \(\upmu \)g g − 1 dw, respectively. Predominance of even carbon numbers n-alkanes C12–C21 with carbon preference index (CPI) of <1 suggests major microbial influence. Fair abundance of odd carbon number n-alkanes in the range of C15–C22 and C23–C33 indicates some input from phytoplankton and terrestrial sources, respectively. Petrogenic input was evident from the presence of hopanes and steranes. The data suggest that organic matter (OM) sources varied spatially and were mostly derived from mixed source.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Dr Satish R Shetye, the Director of National Institute of Oceanography, for facility and encouragement. They are thankful to the European Commission for partial financial support (EC contract No. Pl510658) under project ‘Assesing impacts of TBT on different coastal uses’. VRP thanks UGC-CSIR, New Delhi for Research Fellowship. RRH also acknowledges CSIR-HRD, New Delhi for the fellowship. This is NIO contribution 5259.

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  1. Marine Corrosion and Material Research Division, National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, 403 004, Goa, India

    V R PUNYU, R R HARJI, N B BHOSLE, S S SAWANT & K VENKAT

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PUNYU, V.R., HARJI, R.R., BHOSLE, N.B. et al. n-Alkanes in surficial sediments of Visakhapatnam harbour, east coast of India. J Earth Syst Sci 122, 467–477 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-013-0268-0

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