Distribution characteristics and ecological risk assessment of PAHs in surface waters of China

The concentrations of PAHs in the surface waters from seven river basins in China were summarized from literature published from 2000–2010. Subsequently, the risks from individual PAHs and ΣPAHs in the surface waters of China were quantified by comparing the overlap between the probability distributions of exposure concentrations with the probability distributions of toxicity data. The results show that the concentrations of 15 PAHs in the surface waters ranged from 3.09 to 38139.00 ng L−1, with a geometric mean of 474.93 ng L−1. The significantly higher concentrations of the 15 PAHs occurred in the surface waters from northern China when compared with those from southern China. The concentrations of the 15 PAHs in Chinese surface waters were higher than those in other waters worldwide. The MOS10 (margin of safety) values were calculated at 90th percentile values of exposure concentrations and 10th percentile values of toxicity data, with 5.75, 0.17, 2.33, 0.30, 0.57, 1.74, 1.05, and 0.11 for Ace, Ant, Flu, BaP, Flua, Nap, Phe, and Pyr, respectively. The probabilities of the individual PAH concentrations exceeding the 10th percentile value of the toxicity data were 6.06%, 2.07%, 9.51%, and 2.07% for Nap, Ace, Phe, and Flu, respectively, suggesting minimal risk to aquatic organisms; however, the probabilities of BaP, Ant, Flua, and Pyr exceeding this value were 19.49%, 25.46%, 15.15%, and 30.50%, respectively, indicating potential risks. Among the individual PAHs, the ecological risk from Pyr was the highest, followed by, in descending order of risk, Ant, Bap, Flua, Phe, Nap, Flu, and Ace. Additionally, the combined ecological risk of ΣPAH8 in Chinese surface waters was significantly higher than any that of individual PAHs alone. The MOS10 values in the river basins were < 1, except for the Haihe River Basin, suggesting a potential combined risk from ΣPAH8 in the other six river basins. The probabilities calculation indicate that low to high ecological risk from ΣPAH8 for all aquatic species was reported in the Liaohe River Basin (65.58%), Huaihe River Basin (57.15%), Songhua River Basin (46.49%), Pearl River Basin (38.41%), Yangtze River Basin (25.98%), Yellow River Basin (15.92%), and Haihe River Basin (5.22%).