Estimation and potential ecological risk assessment of multiphase PAEs in mangrove wetlands in Dongzhai Harbor, Hainan

With the application of plastic products, phthalates now widely occur in various environmental media. A large number of ecological risk assessment experiments have only been carried out on a single medium such as water or sediment. There are few reports of ecological risk assessments based on the phase states of phthalic acid esters (PAEs) such as the free dissolved state and the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) adsorption state. In this study, the concentrations of the free dissolved state, the DOC adsorption state, and the easily released PAEs in the sediments, as well as the dis-solved organic carbon release potential and their influencing factors were calculated in the Dongzhaigang water body. The potential ecological risks posed by state-of-the-art PAEs were investigated. The average concentration of six freely dissolved PAEs in water was 0.542 (0.226-1.115) mu g/L, accounting for 76.3 % of the total PAEs. The PAEs with the highest concentrations in the free dissolved state were di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP, 0.383 mu g/L), followed by Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP, 0.094 mu g/L). The average concentration of all six PAEs ( n-ary sumation 6PAEs) adsorbed by the DOC in the water was 0.172 mu g/L, accounting for 23.74 % of all of the PAEs. The DOC-adsorbed DEHP (0.148 mu g/L) accounted for about 86 % of the six adsorbed PAEs. Sediment organic carbon may affect the release potential of the DOC through changing the soluble organic carbon concentration. Most types of PAEs in water posed low risk to organ-isms. However, DBP posed low and medium risk to algae and crustaceans, and medium risk to fish. Medium or high risk of DEHP to algae, crustaceans and fish was observed. The high ecological risk of PAEs related to sediments were only found at S13 and S14. Generally, the potential ecological risk of PAEs in sediment was more stable than that in water bodies.

Automated summary

In this study, the potential ecological risks posed by PAEs in the Dongzhaigang water body were investigated. The results showed that most types of PAEs in water posed low risk to organisms, but certain organisms such as algae, crustaceans, and fish were at medium to high risk. DEHP, in particular, posed high risk to algae, crustaceans, and fish. The potential ecological risk of PAEs in sediments was found to be more stable compared to that in water bodies.