Turning back to look Kaohsiung city¡¦s development and history of exploitation, both of them had a close relationship with the Love River and Chianjen River. Along the rivers, there are numerous industrial estates and large population. The basin of the rivers is important in politics and economy to Kaohsiung. However, the development of Kaohsiung also causes organic pollution, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs), released to water system. Furthermore, some of these pollutants are carcinogenic, so that this topic is quite important. This study investigates PAHs concentrations and seasonal variations in sediments and suspended solids of these two rivers. Total PAHs concentrations varied from 110 to 4300(ng g-1 dry wt) in sediments and 1500 to 7000(ng g-1 dry wt) in suspended solids of the Love River. Total PAHs concentrations of sediments and suspended solids of the Chianjen River exhibited in the range of 230-3900 (ng g-1 dry wt) and 490-9200 (ng g-1 dry wt), respectively. The average PAHs concentration during rain/ dry season of the Chianjen River is significantly higher than those of the Love River. Compared with global data in literature, level of total PAHs concentrations in sediments and suspended solids of the Love River and Chianjen River belongs to moderate pollution. Total PAHs and total organic carbon (TOC) is significantly related except suspended solids of the Chianjen River. However, the relationship between total PAHs concentrations and mean particle size is not significant because of inequilibrium resulted from different sources. Referring to Sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), most of stations are in safe range, only total PAHs concentrations at station L8 in rainy season is significantly higher than the standard ERL value. For each individual compound, the concentrations of many low-molecular-weight PAHs are higher than their standard ERL¡BLET and LAET values. The result of HCA shows that in both dry and rain season, these two rivers¡¦ sediments and suspended solids are separated into upstream and downstream groups. It is believed that the existence of an intercept device set up in midstream of both rivers is the reason. The PAHs in sediments of the Love River is mainly contributed from automobile exhaustion, while suspended solids in the Love River is mainly contributed from petrogenic source. However, both sediments and suspended solids in the Chianjen River are mainly contributed from combustion pollution.

The objective of this study was to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of black carbon (BC) and possible sources by analyzing BC contents in core and sediment trap samples collected from Kao-ping submarine Canyon and surficial sediments collected from Love River, Chianjen River, Kaohsiung Harbor, Kao-ping River and adjacent coastal area. In addition, sediment core and trap samples of Kao-ping submarine Canyon, and suspended solids of Kao-ping estuary were analyzed to estimate the BC loading from Kao-ping River and the flux in Kao-ping submarine Canyon. The concentrations of BC ranged from 0.38 to 3.29 mg g-1 in this study. The results we found in coastal sediments were comparable to those in Asia, but lower than those in America and Europe. Black carbon found in surficial sediments of D2, L1 and of stations from Love River, Chianjen River and Kaohsiung Harbor were contributed from vehicle emission or coal combustion. Correlation coefficients of BC versus total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations, combustion PAHs, total organic carbon (TOC) and grain size were significant in the sediments of Kao-ping River adjacent coast. Regrading to the temporal distribution of BC in Kao-ping submarine Canyon, BC and PAHs increased in the deposited sediment after 1970, that was probably related to prosperous industrial activities for last decades in Taiwan. Surficial sediments could be grouped into three clusters by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Results of principal component analysis (PCA) showed principal component 1 (PC 1) could explain 35 % of total variances. Significant PC 1 compound loadings were found mostly from high molecular weight PAHs which derived mainly from combustion processes. This result was supported by the significant correlation (p<0.05) of PC 1 scores versus BC concentrations which were also mainly derived from combustion. BC fluxes for sediment cores, S1 and S37, and sediment trap of Kao-ping submarine Canyon, 0.59 g m-2 yr-1, 2.03 g m-2 yr-1 and 23 g m-2 yr-1, respectively, were comparable to those reported for surficial sediments in literature. However, BC fluxes in this study were lower than those in the sediments from Mouth of Providence River, Palos Verdes Shelf and New England Harbors, but higher than those in pelagic sediments of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, we also measured BC concentrations in suspended solid samples to estimate loadings of Kao-ping estuary which ranged from 33 to 1765 kg day-1 with an average of 602 kg day-1. Annual BC loading of Kao-ping River was roughly estimated as 29.55¡Ñ104 tons which was lower than that of the Mississippi River.