Distributions and sources of polychlorinated biphenyls in the coastal East China Sea sediments

Use of lipid biomarkers for identification of regional sources and dechlorination characteristics of polychlorinated biphenyls in the East China Sea

“…The total PCB contents (∑ 24 PCBs, sum contents of all 24 congeners) ranged from 19.08 pg/g dw to 496.01 pg/g dw, with an average value of 125.41 pg/g dw. The PCB levels were comparable with the sediments from the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE) and ECS inner shelf (24.3 pg/g to 343.3 pg/g) (Duan et al, 2013), but were markedly lower than those detected in the surface sediments of Bohai Bay (n.d. to 36,100 pg/g) (Zhao et al, 2010), southern Yellow Sea (518 pg/g to 5848 pg/g) (Zhang et al, 2007), and Pearl River estuary (11.13 ng/g to 23.23 ng/g) (Nie et al, 2005) in China. Their values were in the low end of the global content range of PCBs (0.2 ng/g to 400 ng/g) in nearshore surface sediments (Fowler, 1990).…”

“…Mineral grain size (content percentage of sand) analysis showed that the inner shelf (10% to 30%) was composed mostly of fine terrestrial matters, and the middle-outer shelf (N 30%) was composed of coarse-grained quartz and some biogenic carbonates . The correlation between high ∑ 24 PCBs and fine particles indicated that the deposition of PCBs is also heavily affected by grain size (Duan et al, 2013;Piérard et al, 1996).…”

“…PCB occurrence and distribution in Chinese marginal sea have been a concern in recent years. Congener compositions, geographical characteristic, TOC, and grain size have been used to investigate their distribution characteristics and sources (Duan et al, 2013;Gao et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2011Yang et al, , 2012. Studies have shown that PCBs are transferred into the East China Sea (ECS) mainly via surface runoff, industrial wastewater, and atmospheric deposition.…”

Profiles and inventories of organic pollutants in sediments from the central Beibu Gulf and its coastal mangroves

“…PCBs were detected in cores from the more industrialized estuaries of the Changjiang (~50e750 pg g À1 ) (Duan et al, 2013) and Pearl River (~0.5e13 ng g À1 ) (B€ ottcher et al, 2010), with maxima corresponding to peak production times.…”

Distribution and ecotoxicological concerns of persistent organic pollutants in sediment from creek ecosystem

“…[13,14] Polychlorinated biphenyls enter the aquatic environment through a variety of pathways, including atmospheric transport and deposition, river input, and industrial and municipal wastewater discharge. [15,16] Once in the aquatic environment, PCBs, by virtue of their low-water solubility, tend to stick to particles and sediments in water. Sediments at the bottom of large water bodies act as a "reservoir" of PCBs.…”