Source Apportionment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments from Chalong Bay, Phuket, Thailand

The potential sources of 16 PAHs in surface sediments from highly tourism activities of Chalong bay, Phuket province, Thailand were apportioned. Twenty-eight of sediment samples were collected by using van Veen grab Sampler from Chalong bay, Phuket. Quantitative analysis of the 16 PAHs which categorized according to the USEPA was analyzed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS). Moreover, the multi-technique such as diagnostic ratios and principle component analysis (PCA) were applied to apportion the potential source of PAHs in the study area. The results showed that total concentration of PAHs (ΣPAHs) of sediments in Chalong bay ranged from 0.391 to 138 ng/g dry weight, with an average of 56.2±49.2 ng/g dry weight. While, the Diagnostic ratios plot was used to identify the potential sources of PAHs that caused by the anthropogenic in the study area. It was found that 80% of PAHs in sediments have originated from pyrolytic sources whereas the rest is originated from petrogenic sources. The accumulation of PAHs in sediments at Chalong bay were influenced by various potential sources of PAHs such as petroleum spills, combustion of fossil fuels, automobile exhausts, wastewater discharge from the domestic community and street runoff. The multivariate statistical treatment implicated the same potential sources of PAHs that are agreed with PAHs Diagnostic ratios.