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Prudhoe crude oil enriched with a number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was added as a dispersion to a controlled ecosystem enclosure suspended in Saanich Inlet, Canada. Concentrations of various aromatics were determined in water, zooplankton, oysters, and bottom sediments. Initial water concentrations of the lower weight aromatics, naphthalenes and anthracene, were 10-20 gg/L, whereas the initial concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene, benz(a)anthracene, and fluoranthene ranged from 1 to 6 ag/L. These concentrations decreased at an exponential rate due to evaporation, photochemical oxidation, microbial degradation, and sedimentation.Only naphthalenes were significantly degraded by microbes with removal by this process of up to 5% per day from the water. Sedimentation and photochemical oxidation were responsible for the decrease in concentrations of the higher weight aromatics.This paper summarizes an experimental study of the fate of a number of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons of increasing molecular weight in a controlled ecosystem enclosure. The hydrocarbons included naphthalene, methylnaphthalenes, dimethylnaphthalenes, anthracene, fluoranthene, benz(a)anthracene, and benzo(a)pyrene. Prudhoe crude oil was enriched with these aromatics and added as a dispersion to a quarter-scale enclosure (ca. 2 m diameter and 15 m deep-60 000 L). After oil addition, water, sediment, zooplankton, For radioautographic studies (G, 3H) benzo(a)pyrene (25 Ci/mM-Amersham) was added to water samples. A two-step