Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments of two lakes of the Dongting Lake district in Hunan, China

In this paper, 18 and 12 surface sediment samples were collected from Datong Lake and Shanpo Lake, respectively, and the 16 USEPA priority Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in these samples were detected. The result indicated that the Σ16PAHs ranged from 206.56 to 1058.98 ng·g−1 with an average concentration of 667.22 ng·g−1 in sediments from Datong Lake, whereas it ranged from 90.62 to 900.70 ng·g−1 with an average concentration of 364.97 ng·g−1 in sediments from Shanpo Lake. The concentrations of individual PAHs in sediments ranged from 5.50 to 85.23 and from 4.39 to 52.74 ng·g−1 in Datong Lake and Shanpo Lake, respectively. According to the indexes such as HMW/LMW, Ant/(Ant+Phe), Flua/(Flua+Pyr), IcdP/(IcdP+BghiP), and BaA/(BaA+Chr), the PAHs in sediments from both lakes are mainly of pyrogenic origin. The total BaP equivalent in the surface sediment samples from Datong Lake and Shanpo Lake is 42.77 and 33.35 ng·g−1, respectively.