A review on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons distribution in freshwater ecosystems and their toxicity to benthic fauna

Fátima Jesus; Joana L Pereira; Isabel Campos; Martha Santos; Ana Ré; Jacob Keizer; António Nogueira; Fernando J M Gonçalves; Nelson Abrantes; Dalila Serpa

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153282

A review on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons distribution in freshwater ecosystems and their toxicity to benthic fauna

Sci Total Environ. 2022 May 10:820:153282. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153282. Epub 2022 Jan 20.

Affiliations

¹ CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: fatima.jesus@ua.pt.
² CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
³ CESAM - Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.

PMID: 35066033
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153282

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of organic compounds, found ubiquitously in all environmental compartments. PAHs are considered hazardous pollutants, being of concern to both the environmental and human health. In the aquatic environment, PAHs tend to accumulate in the sediment due to their high hydrophobicity, and thus sediments can be considered their ultimate sink. Concurrently, sediments comprise important habitats for benthic species. This raises concern over the toxic effects of PAHs to benthic communities. Despite PAHs have been the subject of several reviews, their toxicity to freshwater benthic species has not been comprehensively discussed. This review aimed to provide an overview on PAHs distribution in freshwater environments and on their toxicity to benthic fauna species. The distribution of PAHs between sediments and the overlying water column, given by the sediment-water partition coefficient, revealed that PAHs concentrations were 2 to 4 orders of magnitude higher in sediments than in water. The sediment-water partition coefficient was positively correlated to PAHs hydrophobicity. Toxicity of PAHs to benthic fauna was addressed through Species Sensitivity Distributions. The derived hazardous concentration for 5% of the species (HC₅) decreased as follows: NAP (376 μg L^-1) > PHE > PYR > FLT > ANT (0.854 μg L^-1), varying by 3 orders of magnitude. The hazardous concentrations (HC₅) to benthic species were inversely correlated to the hydrophobicity of the individual PAHs. These findings are pertinent for environmental risk assessment of these compounds. This review also identified future challenges regarding the environmental toxicity of PAHs to freshwater benthic communities, namely the need for updating the PAHs priority list and the importance of comprehensively and more realistically assess the toxicity of PAHs in combination with other stressors, both chemical and climate-related.

Keywords: Benthic communities; Invertebrates; PAHs; Sediment-water partition coefficient; Species sensitivity distributions.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring
Fresh Water
Geologic Sediments / chemistry
Humans
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons* / analysis
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons* / toxicity
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Water Pollutants, Chemical