Tesis
Organotin compounds in the Danish marine environment: analysis & fate studies [2000]
Abery Jacobsen, Jens;
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The environmental chemistry of antifouling compounds in themarine environment is of special concern to the ecosystems inthe Danish waters, due to the high shipping intensity and theshallow waters. This study is focussed on the regional distributionof one of most toxic substances deliberately released tothe marine environment.Selective and sensitive determination methods are necessaryfor organotin compounds in various matrices in order to studythe fate and effects in the marine environment. The target limitof detections better than 1 ng/L in seawater and 1 &kg insediment and biota were achieved.A novel detectortype (pulsed flame photometric detector,PFPD) for gas chromatography was implemented and used asthe main analytical instrument for this work. The major featuresare the long-term stability and the sensitivity and selectivityfor tin.Spiking experiments of TBT and TPhT in marine mesocosmsshow that the most important short-term fate was related tosorption and sedimentation processes. Release rates of bothTBT and TPhT form polluted sediments were determined.TBT and degradation products are widespread in the Danishmarine environment. Studies from a shipping lane show thatconcentrations depend on distance to hot spots and to a lesserextent shipping lanes. The same study shows TBT in sedimentsare seemingly bio-available to sediment feeding organisms.Sediment cores from the same region show historical trends ofTBT. Estimated degradation half-lives is comparabl
e to theslowest rates found elsewhere (more than 10 years). Nevertheless,indications of decreasing TBT concentrations in the topsediment layers could be reported.Measurements of detectable concentrations of TBT in bluemussels from the Greenland marine environment show thatTBT is widely distributed even in this remote region. TBT insediments from the same region indicate that degradation isvery slow.
