PAHs, Pesticides and Petroleum Hydrocarbons levels in sediments of the Bahía Blanca Estuary, Argentina: distribution, sources, inventory and probability risk

ARIAS, ANDRÉS HUGO; OLIVA, ANA LAURA; RONDA, ANA CAROLINA; ORAZI, MELINA; MARCOVECCHIO, MELINA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; II Congreso Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambiental, y II Congreso Nacional de la Sociedad Argentina de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambiental; 2015

II Congreso Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambiental, y II Congreso Nacional de la Sociedad Argentina de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambiental

As it is well stated, marine and coastal areas represent especially vulnerable zones to the anthropogenic introduction of pollutants via coastal tributaries, urban runoff, industrial processes, vehicle exhausts and spillage of fossil fuels; therefore, the concentration of these compounds in seawater and sediments undoubtedly involve a toxicological importance to both benthic and pelagic marine organisms. In addition, there is a rising need to understand the consequences of human activities, such as land transformations on watershed ecosystem services. This is a challenging task as different indicators of sediment quality are expected to vary in their responsiveness to local-scale heterogeneity in land use/land cover (LUC). Then, in order to test levels and distributions of selected persistent organic compounds (POCs) in relation to the surrounding environment, fourteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs, 48 samples), seventeen organochlorine pesticides (OCs, 24 samples) and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPHs, 48 samples) were analyzed in sediments of eight different LUC areas from the Bahía Blanca Estuary (BBE), a significant low-latitude developing area of Argentina. PAHs concentrations were