Levels of PAHs in the Waters, Sediments, and Shrimps of Estero de Urias, an Estuary in Mexico, and Their Toxicological Effects

Abstract

PAHs were measured in water, sediment, and shrimps of Estero de Urias, an estuary in Sinaloa, Mexico, during the rainy and dry seasons, and analyzed for eleven PAHs routinely detected in samples. Phenanthrene was the most dominant congener in the water, sediment, and shrimp samples comprising about 38, 24, and 25%, respectively, of the eleven PAHs detected, followed by pyrene and naphthalene in water and sediment samples, and pyrene and fluorine in the shrimp samples. Total PAH concentrations ranged from 9 to 347 ng/L in water, 27 to 418 ng/g in sediments, and 36 to 498 ng/g in shrimps. The sources of contamination are closely related to human activities such as domestic and industrial discharge, automobile exhausts, and street runoff. High concentrations were also measured during the rainy season and during the first quarter of the year. Toxicity tests were also carried out, exposing fish embryos and juvenile shrimps to some of these PAHs. Fish embryos exposed to PAHs showed exogastrulation, while juvenile shrimps showed significantly lower growth rates than controls. DNA and protein alterations were also observed. These toxicity tests indicate that PAH concentrations measured could be dangerous to some aquatic organisms, particularly during early stages of development.

Assessing the Ecological Risk of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments at Langkawi Island, Malaysia

“…The levels recorded here are nearly similar to the levels present in the sediment of Jakarta Bay, Indonesia [33], Jiulong River Estuary and Western Xiamen Sea, China [34], and Tokyo Bay, Japan, [33]. However, total PAHs in the Langkawi sediment were approximately 1 order of magnitude higher than those detected in other countries, such as the marine sediments in Thailand [35], Estero de Urias Estuary, Mexico [36], the Gulf of Aden, Yemen [37], Southwest Taiwan [38], and in Hong Kong marine fish farms [26] (Table 5). Moreover, the 2006 annual report of the Malaysian Department of Environment ranked Langkawi Island as the third most polluted area by oil and grease among the 15 monitoring stations in the Peninsula of Malaysia.…”

Aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons risk assessment in coastal water and sediments of Khark Island, SW Iran

“…Based on the results and this classification, seawater at the three Khark Island sampling sites (5, 2 and 6) belong to heavily polluted water by PAHs, while seawater at other stations is classified as low to moderately polluted. In comparison with reported values from other areas around the world, the concentration of ∑PAHs in the seawater of Khark Island was much higher than northwestern Mediterranean Sea, France (Guigue et al, 2014b), Estuary de Urias, Estuary in Sinaloa, Mexico (Jaward et al, 2012), Dalian coast, China (Liu et al, 2013), Haikou Bay, China (Li et al, 2015e). On the other hand, the ∑ PAHs concentration of seawaters in the north of the Persian Gulf (Sinaei and Mashinchian, 2014) and Yangpu Bay, China (Li et al, 2015b) are higher than the island.…”

Research Article Inexpensive metagenomic DNA extraction protocol with high quality from marine sediments contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons.

“…Higher concentrations in rainy than in dry seasons have been documented for PAHs, with runoff comprising the major PAH source in the rainy season in Azuabie Creek in the Niger Delta (Daka and Ugbomeh, 2013). High PAH concentrations were also measured in sediments during the rainy season in an estuary in Sinaloa, Mexico, where contamination is closely related to human activities, such as domestic and industrial discharge, automobile exhausts, and street runoff (Jaward et al, 2012). In the area where the samples were taken for this study, the cause was probably runoff of contaminants from anthropogenic (maritime ports, fisheries, industrial, and urban) activities performed in the area (Valenzuela et al, 2005).…”