Presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in biotic and abiotic compartments of the Saguenay river and fjord.
This paper presents an exhaustive reevaluation of the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Saguenay Fjord and River, an aquatic environment strongly affected by anthropogenic activities and particularly by industrial effluents from aluminum plants in the years 1950 to 1980. Suspended particulate matter (SPM), surface sediment, and a number of organisms have been sampled in 2002 and 2003 and analyzed for their content in PAHs. Results indicate that distribution of PAHs extracted from SPM sampled in the upper section of the river is not statistically different from the distribution observed for particles from the lower section of the river. However, a seasonal change was observed in total particulate PAHs with concentrations ranging from 12 μg•g‐1 in winter to 3.2 μg•g‐1 in summer. The contribution of particulate PAHs from the river to the fjord was estimated to 606 kg per year. A detailed examination of PAH chromatograms revealed the predominance of light hydrocarbons (2 and 3 rings) in river SPM in contrast to heavier hydrocarbons (4 and 5 rings) particularly abundant in surface sediment from the fjord. The contamination level observed in surface sediments of the Saguenay Fjord in 2002 has been compared to previously published data obtained for samples obtained at the same locations in 1982. All PAH profiles showed maximum concentrations in a layer between 15 and 28 cm depth, indicating a slow but constant burying process of highly contaminated sediment brought to the fjord in the years 1960 to 1970. Total PAHs determined in our samples (2-3 cm layer) are 8 to 30 times lower than those reported for samples collected in 1982. PAHs determined in biological tissues of benthic and epi-benthic species indicated the predominance of light PAHs (2 to 3 rings) with higher values found in shrimps and worms in the Baie des Ha! Ha! With the reduction of industrial sources of pyrogenic hydrocarbons, petrogenic hydrocarbons account now for a major contribution to the global contamination of the Saguenay system.