A critical appraisal of PAH indices as indicators of PAH source and composition in Elelenwo Creek, southern Nigeria

K. Opuene, I. E. Agbozu () and O. O. Adegboro
Additional contact information
K. Opuene: University of Nigeria
I. E. Agbozu: Niger Delta University
O. O. Adegboro: Imo State University

Environment Systems and Decisions, 2009, vol. 29, issue 1, 47-55

Abstract: Abstract The survey of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their relation to potential pollution sources were investigated in suspended particulate matter (SPM), surface waters, and sediments from Elelenwo Creek, southern Nigeria. Total PAH concentrations varied from 2,021.35 to 3,926.84 μg/kg dry weights in SPM and from 4,238.00 to 5,490.84 μg/kg dry weights in sediments. Furthermore, concentration levels of PAHs varied from 720.46 to 857.65 μg/l in the surface waters, which indicates that the aquatic ecosystem is polluted by PAHs. The 2, 3-ring PAHs were not dominant in SPM (34.73%), surface water (40.09%), and sediments (22.43%). While anthracene was more abundant, of the 2, 3-ring PAHs in SPM, the most abundant in the surface waters and sediments were fluorene and acenaphthylene. Four origin indices or concentration ratios of PAH isomer pairs were used to evaluate the suitability of these compounds as tracers to distinguish between the contamination arising from different sources. A critical appraisal of the PAH indices, therefore, suggested that biomass combustion is the major PAH source in the environmental matrices. Relative PAH patterns in the environmental matrices were also evaluated using principal component analysis, and were found to correlate with the PAH patterns of the different potential contamination sources.

Keywords: Elelenwo Creek; Suspended particulate matter; Sediments; PAHs; Principal component analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10669-008-9181-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:envsyd:v:29:y:2009:i:1:d:10.1007_s10669-008-9181-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/10669

DOI: 10.1007/s10669-008-9181-5

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment Systems and Decisions from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().