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Pollution assessment and source identifications of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments of the Yellow River Delta, a newly born wetland in China

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Abstract

The levels and possible sources of 16 priority polycyclic aromatic carbons (PAHs) in the sediments from the Yellow River Delta (YRD) were investigated. The total PAH concentrations ranged from 23.9 to 520.6 μg kg − 1 with a mean value of 150.9 μg kg − 1, indicating low or medium levels compared with reported values of other deltas. The concentrations of the 16 individual PAHs presented varied profiles among different regions. The ecological risk assessment of PAHs showed that adverse effects would rarely occur in the sediments of the YRD based on the effect range-low quotients and the probability risk assessment. The PAH compositions and the principal component analysis (PCA) with multiple linear regression (MLR) uniformly presumed the mixed sources of pyrogenic- and petrogenic-deriving PAHs in the YRD. By PCA with MLR, the contributions of major sources were quantified as 36.4% from oil burning, 33.1% from biomass combustion, and 30.5% from diesel emission sources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Zhifeng Yang, Lili Wang, Junfeng Niu, Jingyi Wang & Zhenyao Shen

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  1. Zhifeng Yang
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  2. Lili Wang
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  3. Junfeng Niu
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  4. Jingyi Wang
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Correspondence to Zhifeng Yang.

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Yang, Z., Wang, L., Niu, J. et al. Pollution assessment and source identifications of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediments of the Yellow River Delta, a newly born wetland in China. Environ Monit Assess 158, 561–571 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0603-0

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