Skip to main content
Log in

Distribution, source, and ecological risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in surface sediments from contaminated urban rivers across China

  • Sediments, Sec 1 • Sediment Quality and Impact Assessment • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Sediments are one of the ultimate destinies of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the environment. This study aims to investigate the distribution, source characteristics, and ecological risks of PAHs in black-odorous urban river sediments, providing support for environmental safety assessment and pollution control.

Material and methods

A total of 173 surface sediment samples were collected and analyzed for 17 types of PAHs using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The sources of PAHs were identified using isomer ratio indicator analysis and a positive matrix factorization model (PMF). Furthermore, the health risks of the PAHs were assessed using the Sediment Quality Guidelines and the organic carbon normalization method.

Results

The total PAH concentration ranged from 0.02 to 52 μg g1 dry weight. PMF and isomer ratio indicators revealed that the predominant sources were petroleum and fuel combustion. The ratio of perylene to pentacyclic aromatic isomers was < 10 in 75% of the samples. Most areas posed a low risk.

Conclusions

PAH concentrations exceeded those typically found in lakes and river surface sediments, ordinary industrial parks, and agricultural soils. However, no distinct spatial distribution was evident. The primary contributors were fossil, coal, and biomass fuel combustion. Moreover, the source of perylene exhibited spatial variability—natural biodiagenesis in South China and anthropogenic pyrolysis in North China. These suggest that as an index to trace the sediment footprint of large river influences, its environmental significance varied with different locations. The ecological risk assessment indicated that PAHs in most polluted urban river sediments posed low to moderate risks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

I have shared related data in my supporting information.

References

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (Nos.U23A2056, 42277267, 42161160306), Guangdong Foundation for Program of Science and Technology Research (Grant No.2023B1212060049), and the State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry (SKLOG2020-4). This is contribution No.IS-3475 from GIGCAS.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

Xue-Meng Qi: investigation; formal analysis; data curation; writing—original draft; writing—review and editing; visualization. Xiao-Jun Luo: conceptualization; formal analysis; data curation; writing—review and editing; funding acquisition; visualization; supervision; project administration. Qi-Hong Lu: resources; investigation; writing—review and editing. Chen-Chen Huang: resources; investigation. Ke-Lan Guan: investigation. Yan-Hong Zeng: writing—review and editing. Bi-Xian Mai: writing—review and editing; funding acquisition; supervision. Shanquan Wang: resources; writing—review and editing; supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to XiaoJun Luo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible editor: Cristiano Poleto

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 102 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Qi, X., Guan, K., Luo, X. et al. Distribution, source, and ecological risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in surface sediments from contaminated urban rivers across China. J Soils Sediments (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-024-03746-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-024-03746-5

Keywords

Navigation