ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiological Chemistry and Geomicrobiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1657904
This article is part of the Research TopicMicrobial Involvement in Biogeochemical Cycling and Contaminant Transformations at Land-Water Ecotones - Volume 2View all 4 articles
Occurrence, health risk of PAHs and the interrelated microbial communities in the sediment of Jinzhou Bay
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, China
- 2School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China
- 3Shenyang Agricultural University College of Land and Environment, Shenyang, China
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Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a class of persistent organic pollutants prevalent in estuarine sediments, were systematically investigated for their spatial distribution, human health risks, and microbial community interactions across selected contamination gradients. Analytical results demonstrated ∑PAH concentrations in sediments ranging from 0.691 to 25.083 mg/kg dry weight, with benzo[a]pyrene toxic equivalents (TEQBaP) exceeding international sediment quality guidelines (ISQGs) at 30% of sampling sites, primarily near anthropogenic emission hotspots. Lifetime carcinogenic risk assessments revealed maximum values of 2.41×10⁻⁵ (children), 1.98×10⁻⁵ (adolescents), and 3.04×10⁻⁵ (adults), with wastewater discharge zones exhibiting both the highest PAH concentrations and population exposure risks.Taxonomic profiling revealed sediment bacterial communities dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Chloroflexi at the phylum level. The sulfate-reducing genus Desulfobulbus was ubiquitously detected except at upstream reference sites.Multivariate redundancy analysis (RDA) revealed that total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total organic carbon (TOC), sulfur (S), and PAHs concentrations constituted the key variables governing microbial community structure (p < 0.05).
Keywords: PAH, sediment, estuary, microbial community, Risk Assessment
Received: 02 Jul 2025; Accepted: 13 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Meihua, Yugang, Yaqi, Changpeng and Xiaoman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lian Meihua, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, China
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