Agnieszka JANCEWICZ, Urszula DMITRUK & Urszula TOMCZUK
Institute of Meteorology and Water Management – National Research Institute, Dam Monitoring Centre, Podleśna 61, 01-673 Warsaw, Poland, e-mail: agnieszka.jancewicz@imgw.pl

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND POTENTIAL TOXICITY ASSESSMENT OF SELECTED PAHs IN BOTTOM SEDIMENTS OF POLISH RESERVOIRS

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Water reservoirs are a natural area of sedimentation of pollutants (e.g. PAHs, PCBs or heavy metals) transported by the river and carried from the drainage basin. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in samples of bottom sediments gathered from six reservoirs located on the territory of Poland were analysed. The adverse effects of the sediments to aquatic organisms from PAHs were determined by using Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQG). Based on the studies, it was found that the PAHs contents in the analysed sediments were varied, and the total values of 7 PAHs (Σ7PAHs) range from 24 to 12103 μg kg^-1 dry weight (d.w.). The highest concentration were observed in reservoirs Złotniki and Bukówka located in the south-western industrial area of Poland. The lowest total PAH concentrations were found in sediments of Nielisz (57-155 μg kg^-1 d.w.) and Klimkówka (54-220 μg kg^-1 d.w.) from rural and forest areas. A comparison of the PAH concentrations with the ERL (effect range – low) and ERM (effect range – medium) indicates that in more than 50% of samples adverse biological effect may occasionally occur. But only in 2 samples PAHs concentrations were greater than ERM. In a few sample of sediments from Tresna and Rybnik reservoirs individual PAH concentrations above ERL value were observed.