The composition and distribution of saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons in nearshore sediments, river sediments, and coastal peat of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea: Implications for detecting anthropogenic hydrocarbon inputs

Use of aliphatic hydrocarbons to infer terrestrial organic matter in coastal marine sediments off China

“…However, large uncertainties may be incurred using Pri/Phy ratio as an indicator of petroleum sources because pristane can originate from zooplanktons and/or marine animals (Gomez-Belinchon et al, 1988) and oxidation or reduction of chlorophyll can also produce pristane and phytane (Mille et al, 2007). High Pri/Phy values (3-5) were commonly observed in uncontaminated sediments (Steinhauer and Boehm, 1992 (Table S1, Supplementary material), suggesting predominant biogenic (zooplanktons and/or marine animals) rather than petrogenic sources. On the other hand, isoprenoids are less susceptible to biodegradation than n-alkanes, resulting in high Pri/n-C 17 and Phy/n-C 18 values in degraded oil (Mille et al, 2007).…”

Occurrence and Distribution of Aliphatic and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Surface Waters along Coastal Area of Suez Gulf

“…The ratio of pristine vs. phytane (Pr/Ph) has been used as an indicator of the redox conditions in contaminated wastewaters; the Pr/Ph ratio is higher than one confirmed biogenic contamination (45) as recorded in S.NO.3 (1.8837). From Table 3 the ratio Pr/Ph in all our samples is lower than1.0ranging from 0.6099 to 1.1765 confirming a petrogenic contamination (46) . On the other hand, the ratios nC 17 /Pr and nC 18 /Ph, usually used as indicators of hydrocarbon degradation (47) indicate, for most samples, degraded material of biogenic inputs, however, most samples show high values of nC 17 /Pr ratio which could be related to the relatively high contents of nC 17 in several stations.…”

A comparison of the distribution and sources of organic matter in surface sediments collected from northwestern and southwestern plateau lakes in China

“…The lakes that have probably been contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons are located mainly on the southwestern plateau, where they are subject to influences from anthropogenic activities, leading to larger amounts of industrial effluent and domestic sewage entering these lakes (Wang et al, 2007). In uncontaminated sediments, the Pr/Ph ratio is higher than 1, typically between 3 and 5 (Steinhauer and Boehm, 1992). In addition, a Pr/Ph ratio less than 1 represents anoxic conditions, while a value greater than 1 reflects oxic conditions (Didyk et al, 1978).…”