Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 159, Issue 10, Pages 2665-2674Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2011.05.033
Keywords
Sediment; Hydrocarbons; PAH; Alkane; Sea otter
Categories
Funding
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Sediment-associated hydrocarbons can pose a risk to wildlife that rely on benthic marine food webs. We measured hydrocarbons in sediments from the habitat of protected sea otters in coastal British Columbia, Canada. Alkane concentrations were dominated by higher odd-chain n-alkanes at all sites, indicating terrestrial plant inputs. While remote sites were dominated by petrogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), small harbour sites within sea otter habitat and sites from an urban reference area reflected weathered petroleum and biomass and fossil fuel combustion. The partitioning of hydrocarbons between sediments and adjacent food webs provides an important exposure route for sea otters, as they consume similar to 25% of their body weight per day in benthic invertebrates. Thus, exceedences of PAH sediment quality guidelines designed to protect aquatic biota at 20% of the sites in sea otter habitat suggest that sea otters are vulnerable to hydrocarbon contamination even in the absence of catastrophic oil spills. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available