Coral skeletons reveal the impacts of oil pollution on seawater chemistry in the northern South China Sea

Sirong Xie; Wei Jiang; Chunmei Feng; Yinan Sun; Yansong Han; Yuwen Xiao; Chaoshuai Wei; Kefu Yu

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139632

Coral skeletons reveal the impacts of oil pollution on seawater chemistry in the northern South China Sea

Chemosphere. 2023 Oct:338:139632. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139632. Epub 2023 Jul 22.

Authors

Sirong Xie¹, Wei Jiang², Chunmei Feng³, Yinan Sun³, Yansong Han³, Yuwen Xiao³, Chaoshuai Wei³, Kefu Yu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Laboratory on the Study of Coral Reefs in the South China Sea, School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China; School of Resources, Environment and Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China.
² Guangxi Laboratory on the Study of Coral Reefs in the South China Sea, School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519080, China. Electronic address: jianwe@gxu.edu.cn.
³ Guangxi Laboratory on the Study of Coral Reefs in the South China Sea, School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China.
⁴ Guangxi Laboratory on the Study of Coral Reefs in the South China Sea, School of Marine Sciences, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, China; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519080, China. Electronic address: kefuyu@scsio.ac.cn.

PMID: 37487981
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.139632

Abstract

Oil pollution can release trace metals (TMs) with cumulative toxicity into seawater, harming marine ecosystems in the long term. However, the lack of studies has inhibited our understanding of the effects and mechanisms of oil pollution on TMs in seawater. Hence, we investigated the 10-year monthly variation of TMs in Porites coral skeletons from the northern South China Sea (SCS), complemented by spatial distribution of TMs in seawater, sediments and characterization of TMs in fuel oil. The results of principal component-multivariate linear regression showed that the total contribution of oil pollution as a source to TMs in surface seawater was 77.2%, where the residence time of TMs (Ni, V, Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Fe, and Mo) released from oil spills in surface seawater was approximately 1.4 months. Due to the geochemical nature of the metals, their seasonal variations are controlled by tropical cyclones (Ni, V, Cr, Co, Cu, Mn, Fe, and Mo), winter monsoons (Pb, Cd, Ba, and Zn) and sea surface temperature (Sr). This study shows that coral skeletons can be used as a new tool to study marine oil pollution. This provides valuable reference data for accurately identifying and quantifying the effects of oil pollution on TMs in seawater from a spatial and temporal perspective.

Keywords: Oil spill; Porites lutea; Trace metals; Weizhou island.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anthozoa* / chemistry
China
Ecosystem
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Geologic Sediments / chemistry
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Petroleum Pollution*
Seawater / chemistry
Trace Elements* / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Trace Elements
Metals, Heavy