Relationship between historical changes of PBDEs, PAHs, and algal organic matter in sediments of Poyang Lake under climate warming

Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in the sediment core form Poyang Lake. The concentrations of Σ17 PBDEs and Σ15 PAHs ranged from 1.13 to 4.64 ng/g, and from 341 to 744 ng/g, respectively. The Rock-Eval test was conducted to obtain organic matter parameters such as total organic carbon (TOC), S2, and hydrogen index (HI). The value of TOC, S2, and HI showed an increasing trend from the bottom to the surface. Source analysis results showed that the source of PAHs was combustion. Moreover, the correlation analysis of PBDEs, PAHs, and annual average temperature with S2 and HI showed that BDE-202, BDE-201, BDE-183, and BDE-154 were negatively correlated with S2 and HI, while BDE-85 and BDE-47 were positively correlated. There was no significant correlations of PAHs with S2 and HI, which is related to the disturbance of sediments. It is interesting that significantly positive correlation of HI with five-year moving averages of the air temperature was demonstrated, demonstrating that the climate warming enhanced the increase of algae in the Poyang Lake.

Keywords:

• Sediment core
• algae organic matter
• climate warming
• Poyang Lake

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41473103), Guangdong Foundation for Program of Science and Technology Research (Grant No. 2017B030314057), and a project of the Earmarked Foundation of the State Key Laboratory (SKLOG201603B). This is contribution No.IS-2819 from GIGCAS.