Publication details

DDTs and HCHs in sediment cores from the coastal East China Sea

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Authors

LIN Tian NIZZETTO Luca GUO Zhigang LI Yuanyuan LI Jun ZHANG Gan

Year of publication 2016
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Science of the Total Environment
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969715306707
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv2015.09.010
Field Soil contamination adn decontamination incl. pesticides
Keywords HCHs and DDTs; Sedimentary record; Yangtze River; East China Sea
Description Four sediment cores were collected along the Yangtze-derived sediment transport pathway in the inner shelf of the East China Sea (ECS) for OCP analysis. The sediment records of HCHs and DDTs in estuarine environment reflected remobilization of chemicals from enhanced soil erosion associated to extreme flood events or large scale land use transformation. The sediment records in the open sea, instead, reflected long-term historical trends of OCP application in the source region. Unlike the so-called mud wedge distribution of sediment, inventories of HCHs and DDTs slightly increased from the mouth of Yangtze River alongshore toward south, suggesting the sediment deposition rate was one of factors on the exposure of chemicals within the inner shelf of the ECS. Re-suspension and transport of the Yangtze-derived sediment and consequent fractionation in grain size and TOC were also responsible for the spatial variation of inventories of catchment derived OCPs in a major repository area of the Yangtze suspended sediment. The total burdens of HCHs and DDTs in the inner shelf of the ECS were 35 tons and 110 tons, respectively. After 1983 (year of the official ban in China), those values were 13 tons and 50 tons, respectively. It appears that the Yangtze still delivers relatively high inputs of DDTs more than 30 years after the official ban. High proportions of ODD + DDE and beta-HCH suggested those OCPs mainly originated from historical usage in the catchment recent years.
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