Distribution and Sources of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Marine Sediments of Areas Affected by Oil Spills in Beibu Gulf, China

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed in marine sediments sampled from an area affected by oil spills in Beibu Gulf, China, in order to determine the distribution and potential sources of these PAHs. The total PAHs concentrations presented a range from 11.30 to 141.56 ng/g with a mean value of 42.12 ng/g, which were relatively low compared to other bays around the world. The four-ring PAHs predominated in most sediment samples, accounting for an average of 41.25%. Principal component analyses (PCA) with multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) were used for PAHs source apportionment. The two receptor models both gave good correlation coefficients between predicted and observed PAHs concentrations (R 2 = 0.9982 to 0.9987). Three and five factors were obtained from PCA-MLR and PMF, respectively. One factor was identified by PCA as contributions from mixed sources of fuel combustion and coke production (51.44%). This factor was differentiated into two factors by PMF as contributions from fuel combustion (20.43%) and coke production (28.99%). Another PCA factor was attributed to combined coal combustion and crude oil pollution (35.23%). PMF also differentiated the factor into two factors, the percentages contributions of which were 23.10% and 13.27%, respectively. Both models gave comparable contributions from wood combustion (13.34% and 14.20%, respectively).