Studys On The Determination Of Organtions And Surveys On Organotins Pollution In Harbors Along The Southeast Coast Of China

Though organotins have caused serious potential damage to the coast ecosystem, there was no corresponding laws, regulations or restrictions to control them in china due to unavailability of sensitive and practical investigating methods.Headspace solid phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography and flame photometric detector was adopted in the present study to determine the organotins, especially tributyltin, in oceanic environment. The sensitive methods for water, sediment and biotic samples were established based on a series of experiments, and then used to survey on occurrence of organotin pollution in harbors along the southeast coast of China. The results showed that the pretreatments of sediment and biotic samples with ultrasonic and enzymic hydrolysis could effectively enhance the sensitivity of determination.The investigated results on 8 harbors along the southeast coast of China showed that the TBT concentrations were from less than detection limit to 9.83 ng/L in water samples, from less than detection limit to 174.67 ng/g(d.w) in sediment samples, and were 2.11-70.61 ng/g(w.w) in biotic samples. The TBT concentration in water sample from Beishan Bay was below detection limit, and was the lowest for biotic sample. However, study on imposex of marine Gastropod showed Thais clavigera in Beishan Bay was imposex. This indicated that occurrence of organotin along the southeast coast of china was universal and serious, and had given damage to the ecosystem.The distribution of organotins in most of harbors was controlled by the geographic facters, such as organotins in all three kinds of samples from the inner harbors were higher than those of the outer harbors. T-test showed significant difference between the two groups of data (inner and outer harbors). Moreover, significant positive correlations were found between organotin concentrations and the throughput capacities of harbors.The S-curve fitting to TBT concentrations and VDSI in Thais clavigera, indicated that the organotin pollution was a key driving force to imposex in Thais clavigera, and the VDSI of Thais clavigera was useful and practical for biomonitoring of organotins pollution.The pattern of vertical distribution of organotin in sediment cores of Zhelin Bay was mono-peak. The peak located in 2-3 cm depth, organotin concentrations were very low below 6 cm depth. This provided an academic fundament for sampling of sediment.