Benzotriazole ultraviolet absorbents in surface waters and sediments of the Bohai Sea and North Yellow Sea: Spatial trends and influencing factors

Xing Liu; Zilan Wu; Xiaodan Pei; Tian Lin; Jiaojiao Li; Sha Wang; Zhigang Guo; Ziwei Yao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174264

Benzotriazole ultraviolet absorbents in surface waters and sediments of the Bohai Sea and North Yellow Sea: Spatial trends and influencing factors

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 10:946:174264. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174264. Epub 2024 Jun 25.

Authors

Xing Liu¹, Zilan Wu², Xiaodan Pei¹, Tian Lin³, Jiaojiao Li¹, Sha Wang⁴, Zhigang Guo⁵, Ziwei Yao¹

Affiliations

¹ State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Coastal Ecosystem, National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian 116023, China.
² State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Coastal Ecosystem, National Marine Environmental Monitoring Center, Dalian 116023, China. Electronic address: zlwu@nmemc.org.cn.
³ College of Marine Ecology and Environment, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
⁴ Agilent Technologies (China) Co. Ltd., Beijing 100102, China.
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.

PMID: 38936716
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174264

Abstract

Benzotriazole ultraviolet absorbents (BUAs) of emerging concern were recently monitored in seawater and sediments from the Bohai Sea (BS) and North Yellow Sea (NYS), which are impacted by human activities, to elucidate their regional occurrence patterns, phase distributions, and contamination profiles. Although environmental variables such as sedimentary organic carbon, particle size, and salinity, as well as hydrological conditions, affected the environmental occurrence of BUAs in the BS and NYS, the source dependence of BUA distributions associated with urban impacts and riverine inputs was highlighted. Substantial spatial variability in the composition patterns and contamination profiles of BUAs identified through correlation and principal component analyses were likely caused by region-specific sources and characteristics. The distribution of target BUAs between the sediment and seawater phases showed no dependence on the octanol-water partition coefficient (K_OW) but exhibited marked spatial variations. The diversity of BUA sorption behaviors was further explained by the total organic carbon (TOC)-normalized distribution coefficient (K_TOC). Classic logK_TOC-logK_OW linear relationships accurately predicted the phase distributions of UV-326, UV-328, and UV-234, but deviations were found for lighter and heavier BUAs, possibly due to the influences of physical disturbance and microparticle binding.

Keywords: Benzotriazole ultraviolet filters; Benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers; Bohai Sea; Environmental occurrence; North Yellow Sea; Phase partitioning.