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Selected current-use pesticides (CUPs) in coastal and offshore sediments of Bohai and Yellow seas

  • Developments and Applications of Environmental Specimen Banks for Monitoring Emerging Contaminants
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Abstract

China is one of the largest producers, consumers, and traders for pesticides in the world. Currently, there are more than 600 pesticide-active substances registered in China, whereas few studies were conducted to improve our understanding of the occurrence and environmental impact of current-use pesticides (CUPs) in China’s environment. In this work, 72 surface sediment samples were taken from the coastal and offshore of Bohai and Yellow seas and were analyzed for six CUPs (trifluralin, dacthal, quintozene, endosulfan, chlorpyrifos, and dicofol) and two metabolites (pentachloroanisole and endosulfan sulfate). Sediment samples were categorized as estuarine or near-shore sediments (Laizhou Bay, Taozi Bay, Sishili Bay, and Jiaozhou Bay) and offshore sediments. Trifluralin, α-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, chlorpyrifos, dicofol, and pentachloroanisole were detected in more than 60 % of the samples. Dicofol was the predominant compound with concentrations mostly higher than 100 pg/g dry weight (dw) with the highest concentration of 18,000 pg/g dw. Concentrations of other compounds were mainly below 100 pg/g dw. CUP levels were much lower than the sediment screening benchmark calculated. The highest levels of α-endosulfan, endosulfan sulfate, trifluralin, and chlorpyrifos existed at Laizhou Bay, whereas pentachloroanisole and dicofol had highest mean concentrations at Jiaozhou Bay. Generally, no correlation between pesticide concentrations and total organic carbon was observed either for offshore samples or for near-shore samples.

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Acknowledgment

This study was financially supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-EW-QN210, KZZD-EW-14, and YZ201161) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40933048 and 41073064). We are grateful for the field assistance from the crew of Research Vessel Dongfanghong 2 of the Ocean University of China.

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  1. Axel Möller

    Present address: GBA Gesellschaft für Bioanalytik mbH, Goldtschmidtstraße 5, 21073, Hamburg, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, China

    Guangcai Zhong, Jianhui Tang & Yingjun Chen

  2. Institute of Coastal Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, Geesthacht, 21502, Germany

    Guangcai Zhong, Zhiyong Xie, Wenying Mi, Axel Möller, Renate Sturm & Ralf Ebinghaus

  3. State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Gan Zhang

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  1. Guangcai Zhong
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Zhong, G., Tang, J., Xie, Z. et al. Selected current-use pesticides (CUPs) in coastal and offshore sediments of Bohai and Yellow seas. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 1653–1661 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-2648-7

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