Historical record of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) in marine sediment cores from Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

Tracking human footprints in Antarctica through passive sampling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in inland lakes

“…Studies on the combustion of jet fuel in a gas turbine engine showed that two or three-rings PAHs were dominant components in exhaust particulates (Christie et al, 2012), which could carry PAHs into inland lakes. Although no information about the occurrence of PAHs in sediments of Larsemann Hills has been reported, values of Flu/(Flu þ Pyr) (0.42e0.50) in surface sediments of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica suggested that PAHs were partly derived from fuel combustion (Martins et al, 2010). On the other hand, long-range atmospheric transport appeared to be an insignificant input source of PAHs relative to the local sources, as corroborated by the extremely low concentrations (0e150 numbers per gram dry mass of sediment) of spheroidal carbonaceous particles in a sediment core from Heart Lake (Rose et al, 2012).…”

“…To date, elevated levels of contamination around scientific stations compared to those far away from them have been taken as clear evidence of the stations being local pollution sources (Martins et al, 2010). This is particularly relevant for PAHs and other chiefly particle-bound compounds, and the dominance of low molecularmass POPs far away from the research stations was usually attributed to long-range atmospheric transport as the main contamination pathway (Cabrerizo et al, 2012).…”

Distribution, source, and ecological risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments from the Hun River, northeast China

“…PAHs are generally introduced into the environment via anthropogenic activities, including incomplete combustion of organic matter, oil leakages, traffic-related emissions, sewage discharges, etc. (Essien et al 2011;Luo et al 2006;Mirza et al 2014;Martins et al 2010). Owing to their hydrophobic and persistent nature, PAHs can be strongly adsorbed to particles present in aquatic ecosystems and accumulate in sediments, which act as a long-term reservoir for PAHs (Patrolecco et al 2010;Scheibye et al 2014).…”

Baseline concentrations of faecal sterols and assessment of sewage input into different inlets of Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

“…The sediment thickness between the depth of maximum 137 Cs activity and the core top was used to estimate the mean sedimentation rate for this period and these results were firstly presented by Martins et al (2010b) and Ribeiro et al (2011).…”