Organic Pollutants, Heavy Metals and Toxicity in Oil Spill impacted Salt Marsh Sediment Cores, Staten Island, New York City, USA

Vane, C.H.; Kim, A.W.; Moss-Hayes, V.; Turner, G.; Mills, K.; Chenery, S.R.; Barlow, T.S.; Kemp, A.C.; Engelhart, S.E.; Hill, T.D.; Horton, B.P; Brain, M.J.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110721

Organic Pollutants, Heavy Metals and Toxicity in Oil Spill impacted Salt Marsh Sediment Cores, Staten Island, New York City, USA

Vane, C.H.; Kim, A.W.; Moss-Hayes, V.; Turner, G.; Mills, K.; Chenery, S.R.; Barlow, T.S.; Kemp, A.C.; Engelhart, S.E.; Hill, T.D.; Horton, B.P; Brain, M.J.

Authors

C.H. Vane

A.W. Kim

V. Moss-Hayes

G. Turner

K. Mills

S.R. Chenery

T.S. Barlow

A.C. Kemp

Dr Simon Engelhart simon.e.engelhart@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

T.D. Hill

B.P Horton

Dr Matthew Brain matthew.brain@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Abstract

Sediment cores from Staten Island's salt marsh contain multiple historical oil spill events that impact ecological health. Microtox solid phase bioassay indicated moderate to high toxicity. Multiple spikes of TPH (6524 to 9586 mg/kg) and Σ16 PAH (15.5 to 18.9 mg/kg) were co-incident with known oil spills. A high TPH background of 400–700 mg/kg was attributed to diffuse sources. Depth-profiled metals Cu (1243 mg/kg), Zn (1814 mg/kg), Pb (1140 mg/kg), Ni (109 mg/kg), Hg (7 mg/kg), Cd 15 (mg/kg) exceeded sediment quality guidelines confirming adverse biological effects. Changes in Pb206/207 suggested three metal contaminant sources and diatom assemblages responded to two contamination events. Organic and metal contamination in Saw Mill Creek Marsh may harm sensitive biota, we recommend caution in the management of the 20–50 cm sediment interval because disturbance could lead to remobilisation of pre-existing legacy contamination into the waterway.

Citation

Vane, C., Kim, A., Moss-Hayes, V., Turner, G., Mills, K., Chenery, S., …Brain, M. (2020). Organic Pollutants, Heavy Metals and Toxicity in Oil Spill impacted Salt Marsh Sediment Cores, Staten Island, New York City, USA. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 151, Article 110721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110721

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Nov 6, 2019
Online Publication Date	Jan 29, 2020
Publication Date	Feb 28, 2020
Deposit Date	Dec 6, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Jan 31, 2020
Journal	Marine Pollution Bulletin
Print ISSN	0025-326X
Publisher	Elsevier
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	151
Article Number	110721
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110721

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Copyright Statement
© 2020 British Geological Survey, a component body of UKRI BGS © UKRI 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).