• Energy Research

PCB levels in plankton were investigated in the Bay of Marseille, Western Mediterranean Sea, between September 2010 and October 2011. Concentrations of PCB congeners (CB 18, CB 52, CB 101, CB 118, CB 138, CB 153, CB 180) were determined in three plankton size-classes (60-200, 200-500 and 500-1000μm) together with different parameters: chlorophyll content, plankton dry-weight biomass, carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios and plankton-community structure. The ∑PCB7 concentrations ranged between 14.2 and 88.1ngg(-1)d.w., for all size classes and all sampling periods. The results do not show the biomass dilution effect and indicate moderate but significant biomagnification with plankton trophic position estimated by δ(15)N signatures. Equilibrium with water phase may notably contribute in controlling the PCB levels in the plankton. More generally, presented results imply that PCB accumulation in the plankton is an effect of abiotic and trophic complex interactions in the Bay of Marseille.

3D coupled modeling approach is used for the PCB dispersion assessment in the Gulf of Lion and its transfer to zooplankton via biogeochemical processes. PCB budgets and fluxes between the different species of PCB: dissolved, particulate, biosorbed on plankton, assimilated by zooplankton, which are governed by different processes: adsorption/desorption, bacteria and plankton mortality, zooplankton excretion, grazing, mineralization, volatilization have been estimated. Model outputs were compared with the available in situ data. It was found that the Rhone River outflows play an important role in the organism contamination in the coastal zone, whereas the atmospheric depositions are rather more important in the offshore zones. The transfer of the available contaminant to bacteria and phytoplankton species is mainly related to the biomass present in the water column. Absorption fluxes (grazing) to zooplankton are rather higher than the passive sorption fluxes, which are themselves also linked to the sorption coefficient.

The direct phototransformations in aqueous solution of chlorbufam (I), chlorotoluron (II), and isoproturon (III) are compared.With I and II photohydrolysis (substitution of chlorine atom with formation of the corresponding hydroxylated derivative) is initially almost quantitative. It does not depend on irradiation wavelength in the range 250–300 nm. In contrast with III the main reaction is a free radical rearrangement, the reaction being more efficient at 254nm than at wavelengths longer than 270 nm.Compounds II and III were also irradiated on sand in the absence of water. Several photoproducts were identified, they result from elimination or oxidation of methyl groups of urea moiety.The toxicity of photoproducts was determined using the standard Microtox® test (toxicity on the bacterium Vibrio fischeri). Photohydrolysis of I and II does not change much the toxicity of solutions whereas the oxidation, or at a lower scale the elimination of methyl group on the urea moiety, dramatically increases the toxicity.