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Congener Profiles of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Sediment Cores from Sundarban Wetland

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Marine Organic Micropollutants

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science ((BRIEFSENVIRONMENTAL))

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Abstract

The chapter presents a detailed account of congener profiles of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediment core samples (<63 μm particle size) covering seven sites in Sundarban mangrove wetland, north-eastern part of the Bay of Bengal. Results pointed out a non-homogenous contamination of the wetland with Σ23PCB values ranging from 0.5 to 26.9 ng g−1 dry weight, reflecting very low to moderate contamination closely in conformity to other Asian coastal regions. The general decreasing order of the dominant congeners to the total load was in the following descending order: CB138 > 153 > 149 > 101, indicating the predominance of hexachlorinated congeners. The spatial distribution revealed significant differences in concentration related to local urbanization with industrial and land-based sources. No uniform temporal trend on PCB levels was recorded probably due to particular hydrological and geomorphological characteristics of the wetland and/or non-homogenous inputs from point sources. Strong positive correlations between the seven dominant congeners suggest their common sources and similar environmental behaviors. These results were also used for a risk assessment evaluation in the Sundarban wetland, showing that the present PCB levels were exceeding in few cases the lower limit of sediment quality guidelines of Environmental Protection Agency and Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, West Bengal, India

    Santosh Kumar Sarkar

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  1. Santosh Kumar Sarkar
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Sarkar, S.K. (2016). Congener Profiles of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in Sediment Cores from Sundarban Wetland. In: Marine Organic Micropollutants. SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43301-1_3

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