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Influence of blooms of phytoplankton on concentrations of hydrophobic organic chemicals in sediments and snails in a hyper-eutrophic, freshwater lake

  Shi, Wei; Yu, Nanyang; Jiang, Xia; et al.

  Blooms of phytoplankton, which are common in freshwater ecosystems, might not only affect quality of water but also influence biogeochemical processing of pollutants. Based on three years of field observations in sediments of Tai Lake, China, concentrations of organochlorine (OC) pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in areas where blooms occurred were 2.4 and 3.4 times greater than concentrations in areas without blooms. Concentrations of octylphenol (OP), nonylphenol (NP) and bisphenol A (BPA) in areas where blooms did not occur were 3.8, 4.4 and 2.6 times greater than concentrations in areas where blooms did occur. To explain the differences, simultaneous, seasonally determinations of the water-sediment-phytoplankton-snails disequilibria were determined empirically. Greater sinking and lesser diffusion were shown to be probable drivers of the burial of delta-HCH, 4-ring and 5-ring PAHs in surface sediments of areas in which blooms occurred, being as much as 0.58, 38 and 45gmonth-1. Large biodegradation and low burial was shown to be the probable reason of the inverse proportion of NP, OP and BPA in both water and sediment to biomass which might be due to the enhanced metabolic capacity of bacterial community associated with algae blooms. These phenomena further influence the persistent hydrophobic organic chemicals in the snail species (Bellamya quadrata) being greater in winter but lesser in summer, which is probably due to the positive relationship with the concentrations in sediment when snails were dormant and with the concentrations in water after dormancy. Thus, in Tai Lake, the fate and distribution of persistent and biodegradable contaminants in sediments and snails is influenced by blooms of phytoplankton, which should be included in models of environmental fates of contaminants.

(来源:Water research, 2017, 113: 22-31)