Horizontal and vertical distribution of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides in sediments from Masan Bay, Korea

Abstract

Horizontal and vertical distributions of organochlorines were determined in Masan Bay. Among the organochlorines, PCBs and DDTs were dominant compounds, and their total concentrations were in the range of 1.24 - 41.4 ng/g and 0.28 – 89.2 ng/g, respectively. The spatial distribution of organochlorines showed that inner bay was the source of them, and their concentrations had a good correlation with particulate organic carbon content (POC). Compositional pattern of PCB congeners showed that highly chlorinated congeners were abundant at inner part of the bay and lightly chlorinated were at outer part, indicating that the former were easily settled down to the bottom sediment and the latter traveled far from the source. Sediment core from Masan Bay showed that PCBs and DDTs had different pollution histories, whose subsurface maximum concentrations correspond to deposition date of early 1980s and late 1960s, respectively. This depth profile was in accordance with their usage history in Korea.