title: Predicting seasonal fate of phenanthrene in aquatic environment with a Markov chain.
abstract: Phenanthrene (Phe) with carcinogenicity is ubiquitous in the environment, especially in aquatic environment; its toxicity is greater. To help determine toxicity risk and remediation strategies, this study predicted seasonal fate of Phe in aquatic environment. Candidate mechanisms including biodegradation, sorption, desorption, photodegradation, hydrolysis and volatility were studied; the results for experiments under simulated conditions for normal, wet and dry seasons in the Yinma River Basin indicated that biodegradation in sediment, sorption, desorption, and volatility were important pathways for elimination of Phe from aquatic environment and showed seasonal variations. A microcosm which was used to mimic sediment/water system was set up to illustrate seasonal distribution and transport of Phe. A Markov chain was applied to predict seasonal fate of Phe in air/water/sediment environment, the predicted results were perfectly agreed with results of microcosm experiments. Predicted results with a Markov chain suggested that volatility and biodegradation in sediment were main elimination pathways, and contributions of elimination pathways showed seasonal variations; Phe was eliminated from water and sediment to negligible levels over around 250 h in August and over 1000 h in May; in November, Phe was eliminated from water to a negligible level while about 31 % of Phe amount still remained in sediment over 1000 h.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, Department of Environment, Northeast Normal University, NO. 2555 Jingyue Street, Changchun, 130024, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Caiyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, Department of Environment, Northeast Normal University, NO. 2555 Jingyue Street, Changchun, 130024, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiyun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, Department of Environment, Northeast Normal University, NO. 2555 Jingyue Street, Changchun, 130024, People's Republic of China. zhangjq022@nenu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiquan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, Department of Environment, Northeast Normal University, NO. 2555 Jingyue Street, Changchun, 130024, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Natural Disaster Research, Department of Environment, Northeast Normal University, NO. 2555 Jingyue Street, Changchun, 130024, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002681:China; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D008390:Markov Chains; D010616:Phenanthrenes / Q000032:analysis*; D010782:Photolysis; D045483:Rivers; D012621:Seasons; D014835:Volatilization; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D010616:Phenanthrenes; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C031181:phenanthrene
keywords: Aquatic environment; Fate; Markov chain; Microcosm; Phenanthrene; Seasonality