Concentration and Potential Ecological Risk of PAHs in Different Layers of Soil in the Petroleum-Contaminated Areas of the Loess Plateau, China

Di Wang, Jing Ma, Hao Li and Xingchang Zhang
Additional contact information
Di Wang: College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Jing Ma: Inspection and Testing Center for Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, Ningxia Institute of Agricultural Survey and Design, Yinchuan 750002, China
Hao Li: Inspection and Testing Center for Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, Ningxia Institute of Agricultural Survey and Design, Yinchuan 750002, China
Xingchang Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: The three most representative areas of petroleum pollution on the Loess Plateau are the research subjects of this study. In this study, 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were determined by the QuEChERS method combined with gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). The total concentrations of ∑16PAHs in top layer soils (0–10 cm), middle layer soils (10–30 cm), and bottom layer soils (30–50 cm) ranged from 1010.67 to 18,068.80, 495.85 to 9868.56 and 213.16 to 12,552.53 μg/kg, with an average of 5502.44, 2296.94 and 2203.88 μg/kg, respectively. The 3-ring and 4-ring PAHs were the most prominent components in all soil samples. Meanwhile, the average value of ∑16PAHs decreased with the depth, from 5502.44 μg/kg (0–10 cm) to 2203.88 μg/kg (30–50 cm). The PAHs levels in the studied soils were heavily polluted (over 1000 μg/kg) according to the Soils Quality Guidelines and 95% of PAHs come from petroleum sources. Moreover, the total of PAHs in petroleum-contaminated soils was assigned a high ecological risk level. Toxic equivalency quantities (TEQs) indicated that PAHs in petroleum-contaminated soils presented relatively high toxicity.

Keywords: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); petroleum-contaminated; concentration; ecological risk; Loess Plateau (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1785/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/8/1785/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:8:p:1785-:d:164630

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().