Contamination Assessment of Mangrove Ecosystems in the Red Sea Coast by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

Int J Environ Res Public Health

National Centre for Environmental Technology (NCET), Life Science & Environment Research Institute (LSERI), King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST), Riyadh 12354, Saudi Arabia.

Published: April 2022

AI Article Synopsis

  • Mangroves play a crucial role in mitigating and adapting to climate change but are at risk from pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
  • In a study conducted in August 2013, mangrove seawater and sediment samples from two areas along the Red Sea Coast were analyzed, revealing higher PAH concentrations in sediments from Sharam but higher levels in seawater from Alkhor.
  • Dominant PAH components included phenanthrene and pyrene, with different patterns of aromatic ring abundance observed in seawater and sediment, indicating varying sources of pollution—petrogenic for sediments and pyrogenic for seawater.

Article Abstract

Mangroves are known as a naturally based solution for climate mitigation and adaptation. Mangroves are at a potential risk of degradation by contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In this study, sixteen priority PAHs were analyzed and characterized in forty samples of mangrove seawater and mangrove sediments collected from two coastal areas (i.e., Sharm and Khor Rabigh) along the Red Sea Coast of Rabigh city in August 2013. We found that the average concentration of total PAH in mangrove sediments in the Sharam area (22.09 ng/kg) was higher than that in the Alkhor area (6.51 ng/kg). However, the average concentration of the total PAH in the mangrove seawater in the Alkhor area (9.19 ng/L) was double that in the Sharam area (4.33 ng/L). Phenanthrene and pyrene were the major components in both the mangrove seawater and sediment in all the investigated areas. We observed that the abundance of PAHs with 2-3 aromatic rings was dominant in sediment samples collected from both study areas. This abundance was also observed in seawater from the Sharam area. However, seawater samples from the Alkhor area had abundant PAHs with four aromatic rings. The majority of PAHs in sediment samples of both study areas originated from petrogenic sources, whereas the majority of PAHs in seawater samples originated from pyrogenic sources.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9105837PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095474DOI Listing

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