Research Article | OPEN ACCESS
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediment and Tissues of the Crab Callinectes pallidus from the Azuabie Creek of the Upper Bonny Estuary in the Niger Delta
Erema R. Daka and Adaobi P. Ugbomeh
Department of Applied and Environmental Biology, Rivers State University of
Science and Technology, P.M.B. 5080, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 2013 14:2594-2600
Received: January 03, 2013 | Accepted: January 31, 2013 | Published: August 10, 2013
Abstract
The accumulation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) in sediment and the flesh/carapace of the edible swimming crab Callinectes pallidus from Azuabie creek in the upper Bonny Estuary, Niger Delta and Nigeria were studied. Sediment and crab samples were collected from three sampling stations along the Azuabie creek in July (rainy season) and November (dry season) 2007. These stations were selected to reflect point of abattoir waste input (which includes ash from tyre used for roasting meat) into the creek as well as locations upstream and downstream of the point. Seasonal and spatial variations were observed in the concentrations of PAH. Significant differences in PAH (p<0.01) were observed between rainy season and dry season samples. The major classes of PAH found in sediment and C. pallidus were Naphthalene, Benzo (a) pyrene, Benzo (a) anthracene and Phenanthrene which are known to be carcinogenic. The PAHs were higher during the rainy season probably due to run-off of tyre ash from the nearby abattoir. The observations made in this study suggest that C. pallidus from the Azuabie creek might not be safe for human consumption because of the levels of PAHs found in the flesh of samples mostly in the rainy season. The abattoir appears to impact the creek because significantly higher levels of PAHs were recorded at the proximate sampling station.
Keywords:
Bioaccumulation, Bonny estuary, Nigeria, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sediment,
Competing interests
The authors have no competing interests.
Open Access Policy
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Copyright
The authors have no competing interests.
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ISSN (Online): 2040-7467
ISSN (Print): 2040-7459 |
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