Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) profiles of sediments from Falcorp mangrove swamp, Warri, Delta State

Abstract

The Falcorp mangrove swamp has and is still been exposed to various forms of anthropogenic polluting activities which include; Vandalization of oil pipelines which transverse sections of the swamp. The PAHs and PCBs profile of swamp sediments was investigated. The sediments were subjected to routine PAH and PCB analyses which included; extraction, use of sonicator, GC-ECD and GC-FID analysis. The data were subjected to statistical and multivariate analysis using Microsoft Excel, SPSS version 16.0 and PAST respectively. The difference in the mean acenaphthene, florene, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, benzo (k) fluoranthrene, benzo (k) pyrene and dibenzo (a,h)anthracene values across the five stations was statistically insignificant (P>0.05). According to the combinations of the clusters, the PAH characteristics in all the stations were dissimilar with value < 1. There was a significant difference (P<0.05) in the seasonal concentrations of the PCBs; 2,2',3,3',4,5,5',6'-Octachlorobiphenyl, and 2,2',3,3',4,4',5,5',6-Nonachlorobiphenyl. Despite the on-going anthropogenic pollution of the swamp, sediment borne PAHs and PCBs concentrations were low. There is a need to conduct more studies pertaining to evaluating the possible concentrations of these pollutants in some native animal sentinels such as molluscs present in the Falcorp mangrove swamp.