Sources and ecological risk assessment of PAHs in surface sediments from Bohai Sea and northern part of the Yellow Sea, China.

Sources and ecological risk of sixteen priority PAHs in surface sediments from Bohai Sea (BS) and northern part of the Yellow Sea (NPYS) were investigated. The total concentrations of PAHs varied in ranges 149.24-1211.81 and 148.28-907.47 ng/g for BS and NPYS, respectively. Principal component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) suggested that coal combustion, vehicular emission and coke oven could be the primary PAH contributors, accounting for 56.6%, 29.2% and 14.2% of PAH concentrations, respectively. Analysis with sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) indicated that acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene and dibenzo(a,h)anthracene may occasionally cause adverse biological effects in some stations. Organic carbon (OC)-normalized analysis and mean effects range-median quotient (M-ERM-Q) suggested that the combined ecological risk of PAHs was generally low. The toxic equivalent concentrations of carcinogenic PAHs were 12.87-64.6 ng/g-BaP(eq) and 5.95-68.80 ng/g-BaP(eq) in BS and NPYS, respectively, suggesting low carcinogenic risk for both BS and NPYS.