The relationship of chromophoric dissolved organic matter parallel factor analysis fluorescence and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in natural surface waters

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2018, Vol.25 (2), p.1428-1438
• Main Authors: Li, Sijia, Chen, Ya’nan, Zhang, Jiquan, Song, Kaishan, Mu, Guangyi, Sun, Caiyun, Ju, Hanyu, Ji, Meichen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption; Absorptivity; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Complex compounds; Discriminant analysis; Dissolved organic matter; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecological effects; Ecological risk assessment; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental assessment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Factor analysis; Fluorescence; Persistent organic pollutants; Pollutants; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Research Article; Risk assessment; Rivers; Seasonal variations; Sewage; Surface water; Tryptophan; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water quality
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-0580-3

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a large group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), have caused wide environmental pollution and ecological effects. Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM), which consists of complex compounds, was seen as a proxy of water quality. An attempt was made to understand the relationships of CDOM absorption parameters and parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) components with PAHs under seasonal variation in the riverine, reservoir, and urban waters of the Yinma River watershed in 2016. These different types of water bodies provided wide CDOM and PAHs concentration ranges with CDOM absorption coefficients at a wavelength of 350 nm ( a CDOM (350)) of 1.17–20.74 m −1 and total PAHs of 0–1829 ng/L. CDOM excitation-emission matrix (EEM) presented two fluorescent components, e.g., terrestrial humic-like (C1) and tryptophan-like (C2) were identified using PARAFAC. Tryptophan-like associated protein-like fluorescence often dominates the EEM signatures of sewage samples. Our finding is that seasonal CDOM EEM-PARAFAC and PAHs concentration showed consistent tendency indicated that PAHs were un-ignorable pollutants. However, the disparities in seasonal CDOM-PAH relationships relate to the similar sources of CDOM and PAHs, and the proportion of PAHs in CDOM. Overlooked and poorly appreciated, quantifying the relationship between CDOM and PAHs has important implications, because these results simplify ecological and health-based risk assessment of pollutants compared to the traditional chemical measurements.