Environmental effects on the bioaccumulation of PAHs in marine zooplankton in Gaoping coastal waters, Taiwan: Concentration, distribution, profile, and sources.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are toxic and ubiquitous in the environment and pose great risks. Bioaccumulation by plankton is the outset for PAHs entering marine food web. The long-term driving environmental factors for bioaccumulation of PAHs in zooplankton have not been well investigated. In this study, high variation of PAH concentrations in zooplankton (5 to 5440 ng g-1 dry weight) was found, with the highest PAH levels near the transect Kaohsiung Harbor. Precipitation significantly enhances the PAH concentration in zooplankton and affects the PAH distribution in the water column, indicating PAH input from terrestrial runoff. The sources of PAHs in the coastal waters are a mixture of petroleum and combustion. Biomass dilution dominates bioaccumulation of PAHs in zooplankton, especially for the dominant species, copepods. This study provides the first information on PAH bioaccumulation in zooplankton to understand PAH transport in the plankton food web in subtropical coastal waters.
['Hsieh|Hung-Yen|HY|', 'Huang|Kuang-Ching|KC|', 'Cheng|Jing-O|JO|', 'Lo|Wen-Tseng|WT|', 'Meng|Pei-Jie|PJ|', 'Ko|Fung-Chi|FC|']
D000818:Animals D018533:Biomass D002980:Climate D004784:Environmental Monitoring D020387:Food Chain D019015:Geologic Sediments D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons D013624:Taiwan D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical D015048:Zooplankton
PAHs Zooplankton Food web Isomer ratios Pyrogenic origin