Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: sources, occurrence, levels, distribution and ecotoxicological fate at coastal and Deep Ocean.

ANA LAURA OLIVA; RONDA, ANA CAROLINA; LAUTARO GIRONES; ORAZI, MELINA MARTA; RECABARREN-VILLALÓN, TATIANA; JORGE EDUARDO MARCOVECCHIO; ANDRÉS H. ARIAS,

Coastal and Deep Ocean Pollution

CRC Press, Taylor & Francis

Año: 2019; p. 287 - 316

Oceans cover 75% of the earth´s surface, and their contain 90% of the planet´s water. It is estimated that more than half of the human population (65%) lives along the coasts (Small and Nichols 2003), with a general tendency of people to move from continental regions towards the coasts (Costanza 1994, Marcovecchio et al. 2014). As a consequence, marine environments support an intensive and increasing anthropogenic pressure such us inputs from agriculture, industrial and municipal waste-waters, oil spills and direct industrial discharges among others.Environmental pollution by Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) has triggered an increasing concern all over the world. POPs could persist in the environment for a long time, and also travel long distance far from their original source. POPs can be released and polluted regions remote far from their origin, and then lead to cross-boundary problems that need international efforts for the control of them (Tanabe 1991, Wania and Mackay 1996, Fu et al. 2003). Moreover, POPs are able to accumulate in the environment (water, air, soils, sediments and biota) and exert biological effects on humans and wildlife. Between them, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous contaminants in the marine and coastal environments. Hundreds of different combinations of PAHs exist, but only a small group of these compounds are considered as pollutants of environmental importance. This chapter presents general aspects of PAHs as environmental pollutants. Moreover, this section collects information on the presence and levels of PAHs in the coasts and deep sea over the world.