Abstract:
As emerging pollutants, the pollution characteristics and ecological risk of organophosphate esters (OPEs) in multi-environmental media from coral reef regions (CRRs) are still unknown. This study investigated the pollution characteristics of 11 typical OPEs in seawater, sediments, and corals from CRRs of Weizhou island in the north of the South China Sea, using GC-MS/MS. The results showed that chlorinated OPEs were dominant in multi-environmental media in CRRs of Weizhou island, accounting for 77%-96%. The total concentrations of OPEs (∑
11OPEs) in seawater and sediment were 43.2-51.7 ng/L and 7.09-20.5 ng/g, respectively, which were relatively lower than other sea areas in China. It was found that ∑
11OPEs were significantly higher in coral symbiotic zooxanthellae (146-4048 ng/g) than those in coral tissues (nd-334 ng/g) (
p<0.01), symbiotic zooxanthellae played a crucial role in the accumulation of OPEs in corals. The biomass dilution strongly affected the accumulation of tri-iso-butyl phosphate (TIBP) and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TNBP) in coral symbiotic zooxanthellae. The ecological risk of most OPEs in seawater was negligible, but only triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) posed a low ecological risk to algae on all sites and fish on some sites. The toxic effects of OPEs on coral symbiotic zooxanthellae remains to be further explored. The release of plastic products during fishery activities and renovation activities may be the main sources of OPEs in seawater and sediment, and a small proportion may come from release during the transportation of cruise ships and fishing vessels.