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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA

The cycling and fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is not well understood in estuarine systems. It is critical now more than ever given the increased ecosystem pressures on these critical coastal habitats. A budget of PAHs and cycling has been created for Galveston Bay (Texas) in the no...

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Autores principales: Rowe, Gilbert T., Fernando, Harshica, Elferink, Cornelis, Ansari, G. A. Shakeel, Sullivan, John, Heathman, Thomas, Quigg, Antonietta, Petronella Croisant, Sharon, Wade, Terry L., Santschi, Peter H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370322
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243734
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author Rowe, Gilbert T.
Fernando, Harshica
Elferink, Cornelis
Ansari, G. A. Shakeel
Sullivan, John
Heathman, Thomas
Quigg, Antonietta
Petronella Croisant, Sharon
Wade, Terry L.
Santschi, Peter H.
author_facet Rowe, Gilbert T.
Fernando, Harshica
Elferink, Cornelis
Ansari, G. A. Shakeel
Sullivan, John
Heathman, Thomas
Quigg, Antonietta
Petronella Croisant, Sharon
Wade, Terry L.
Santschi, Peter H.
author_sort Rowe, Gilbert T.
collection PubMed
description The cycling and fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is not well understood in estuarine systems. It is critical now more than ever given the increased ecosystem pressures on these critical coastal habitats. A budget of PAHs and cycling has been created for Galveston Bay (Texas) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, an estuary surrounded by 30–50% of the US capacity of oil refineries and chemical industry. We estimate that approximately 3 to 4 mt per year of pyrogenic PAHs are introduced to Galveston Bay via gaseous exchange from the atmosphere (ca. 2 mt/year) in addition to numerous spills of petrogenic PAHs from oil and gas operations (ca. 1.0 to 1.9 mt/year). PAHs are cycled through and stored in the biota, and ca. 20 to 30% of the total (0.8 to 1.5 mt per year) are estimated to be buried in the sediments. Oysters concentrate PAHs to levels above their surroundings (water and sediments) and contain substantially greater concentrations than other fish catch (shrimp, blue crabs and fin fish). Smaller organisms (infaunal invertebrates, phytoplankton and zooplankton) might also retain a significant fraction of the total, but direct evidence for this is lacking. The amount of PAHs delivered to humans in seafood, based on reported landings, is trivially small compared to the total inputs, sediment accumulation and other possible fates (metabolic remineralization, export in tides, etc.), which remain poorly known. The generally higher concentrations in biota from Galveston Bay compared to other coastal habitats can be attributed to both intermittent spills of gas and oil and the bay's close proximity to high production of pyrogenic PAHs within the urban industrial complex of the city of Houston as well as periodic flood events that transport PAHs from land surfaces to the Bay.
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spelling pubmed-77692522021-01-08 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA Rowe, Gilbert T. Fernando, Harshica Elferink, Cornelis Ansari, G. A. Shakeel Sullivan, John Heathman, Thomas Quigg, Antonietta Petronella Croisant, Sharon Wade, Terry L. Santschi, Peter H. PLoS One Research Article The cycling and fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is not well understood in estuarine systems. It is critical now more than ever given the increased ecosystem pressures on these critical coastal habitats. A budget of PAHs and cycling has been created for Galveston Bay (Texas) in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, an estuary surrounded by 30–50% of the US capacity of oil refineries and chemical industry. We estimate that approximately 3 to 4 mt per year of pyrogenic PAHs are introduced to Galveston Bay via gaseous exchange from the atmosphere (ca. 2 mt/year) in addition to numerous spills of petrogenic PAHs from oil and gas operations (ca. 1.0 to 1.9 mt/year). PAHs are cycled through and stored in the biota, and ca. 20 to 30% of the total (0.8 to 1.5 mt per year) are estimated to be buried in the sediments. Oysters concentrate PAHs to levels above their surroundings (water and sediments) and contain substantially greater concentrations than other fish catch (shrimp, blue crabs and fin fish). Smaller organisms (infaunal invertebrates, phytoplankton and zooplankton) might also retain a significant fraction of the total, but direct evidence for this is lacking. The amount of PAHs delivered to humans in seafood, based on reported landings, is trivially small compared to the total inputs, sediment accumulation and other possible fates (metabolic remineralization, export in tides, etc.), which remain poorly known. The generally higher concentrations in biota from Galveston Bay compared to other coastal habitats can be attributed to both intermittent spills of gas and oil and the bay's close proximity to high production of pyrogenic PAHs within the urban industrial complex of the city of Houston as well as periodic flood events that transport PAHs from land surfaces to the Bay. Public Library of Science 2020-12-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7769252/ /pubmed/33370322 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243734 Text en © 2020 Rowe et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rowe, Gilbert T.
Fernando, Harshica
Elferink, Cornelis
Ansari, G. A. Shakeel
Sullivan, John
Heathman, Thomas
Quigg, Antonietta
Petronella Croisant, Sharon
Wade, Terry L.
Santschi, Peter H.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title_full Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title_fullStr Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title_full_unstemmed Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title_short Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) cycling and fates in Galveston Bay, Texas, USA
title_sort polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) cycling and fates in galveston bay, texas, usa
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769252/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33370322
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243734
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