Priority and emerging micropollutants distribution from coastal to continental slope sediments: A case study of Capbreton Submarine Canyon (North Atlantic Ocean)

• Published in: Science of The Total Environment
• Main Authors: Azaroff, Alyssa, Miossec, Carole, Lanceleur, Laurent, Guyoneaud, Rémy, Monperrus, Mathilde
• Other Authors: Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux (IPREM), Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Institut de Chimie du CNRS (INC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Adour Garonne Water Agency
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: Inorganic pollutants; Marine strategy framework directive; Persistent organic pollutants; Submarine canyon sediments; Toxicity risk assessment; [CHIM.POLY]Chemical Sciences/Polymers; [CHIM.MATE]Chemical Sciences/Material chemistry; [CHIM.THEO]Chemical Sciences/Theoretical and/or physical chemistry; [CHIM.ANAL]Chemical Sciences/Analytical chemistry; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal-univ-pau.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02430453; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135057

International audience Incising continental margins, submarine canyons are key issue for understanding shelf/deep sea exchange of particulate pollutant, impact on marine ecosystem and global geochemical cycling. The occurrence and distribution of 100 priority and emerging micropollutants were investigated in sediments within the first 25 km of the Capbreton submarine area. The most predominant compounds were polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), trace metals and metalloid (TMs) (e.g. mercury, lead and arsenic), synthetical musks (e.g. musk ketone, galaxolide), UV filters (e.g. octocrylene and 2-ethylhexyl 4-methoxycinnamate, EHMC) as well as some pharmaceuticals (e.g. azithromycin, acetaminophen). Highest concentrations were measured in submarine canyon sediments, distant from the coast and were correlated with both organic carbon and fine fraction contents, where PAHs, EHMC and musk ketone concentrations up to 7116, 32 and 7 ng g−1 dry weight, respectively. Those results likely demonstrate, that atmospheric inputs of pyrogenic PAHs, and both trapping and transporting of polluted particles along the continuum shore/deep sea by the Capbreton Canyon, might lead to an accumulation of anthropogenic micropollutants. The ecological risk assessment indicates that priority pollutants raise a potentially high risk for benthic organisms (e.g. PAHs, TMs). This might raised a specific concern about how the human can impact this ecosystem.