This study presents the first reconstruction of pollution history of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Taiwan coast. Six sediment cores were collected from Gaoping submarine canyon and its adjacent area to investigate the distribution and source recognition of PCBs.
The concentrations of PCBs in the cores from Gaoping canyon ranged 0.155--2.281 ng/g dry wt, whereas the maximum concentrations of PCBs reached 21.0 and 2.93 ng/g dry wt, respectively, in the cores from the northern and sourthern continental shelf of Gaoping canyon. The toxicological effects assessed by sediment quality guidelines (SQGs), show that only 2-10cm in core L27 exceeded the guideline value suggested by Förstner (6 ng/g), which indicated the sediment in this area had been polluted seriously and should not be disturbed. Overall, compared with studies in the world, the sediment PCB concentrations in Kao-Ping coastal areas were relatively low.
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis identified the source of PCBs in the study area was a mixture of Aroclor 1016, Aroclor 1242 and Aroclor 1260. Similarity in vertical variations of total concentrations of PCBs among the six cores was observed and the trend is consistent with the history of the PCB usage in Taiwan. The drastic decrease in PCB concentrations around the late 1980s, clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of the ban of PCBs use in 1980 in Taiwan.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0906109-154338 |
| Date | 06 September 2009 |
| Creators | Tang, Chih-Cheng |
| Contributors | Chi-Ying Hsieh, Meng-Der Fang, Chon-Lin Lee |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0906109-154338 |
| Rights | not_available, Copyright information available at source archive |
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