Distribution of black carbon and PAHs in sediments of Peninsular Malaysia

Vahab Vaezzadeh; Xin Yi; Farah Rasyidah Rais; Chui Wei Bong; Margaret William Thomes; Choon Weng Lee; Mohamad Pauzi Zakaria; Ai Jun Wang; Guangcai Zhong; Gan Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112871

Distribution of black carbon and PAHs in sediments of Peninsular Malaysia

Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Nov:172:112871. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112871. Epub 2021 Aug 21.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Environmental Pollution and Control, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, Guangzhou 510640, China; Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
² State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Environmental Pollution and Control, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
³ Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴ Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: cwbong@um.edu.my.
⁵ Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Laboratory of Microbial Ecology, Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁶ Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁷ Laboratory for Coast and Ocean Geology, Third Institute of Oceanography (TIO), Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Environmental Pollution and Control, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: gczhong@gig.ac.cn.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory for Environmental Pollution and Control, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Deep Earth Science, Guangzhou 510640, China.

PMID: 34428623
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112871

Abstract

Concentrations, sources and interactions between black carbon (BC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated in 42 sediment samples collected from riverine, coastal and shelf areas in Peninsular Malaysia. The concentrations of BC measured by benzene polycarboxylic acid (BPCA) method and PAHs showed broad spatial variations between the relatively pristine environment of the East coast and developed environment of the West and South coast ranging from 0.02 to 0.36% dw and 57.7 ng g^-1 dw to 19,300 ng g^-1 dw, respectively. Among diagnostic ratios of PAHs, the ratios of Ant/(Ant+Phe) and LMW/HMW drew the clearest distinctions between the East coast versus the West and South coast sediments indicating the predominance of petrogenic sources in the former versus pyrogenic sources in the latter. PAHs significantly correlated with BC and total organic carbon (TOC) in the sediments (p < 0.05) having similar correlation coefficients. BC accounted for 6.06 to 30.6% of TOC in sediments.

Keywords: Benzene polycarboxylic acids; Black carbon; PAHs; Sorption; Southeast Asia; TOC.

MeSH terms

Carbon / analysis
Environmental Monitoring
Geologic Sediments
Malaysia
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons* / analysis
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Carbon