No. 2 Fuel Oil Compound Retention and Release by 'Mytilus edulis': 1983 Cape Cod Canal Oil Spill

摘要

Retention and release of No. 2 fuel oil compounds by Mytilus edulis contaminated by a small oil spill in the Cape Cod Canal in 1983 has been studied for the population 'in situ' and for a subsample transplanted to a clean laboratory seawater system. Compounds analyzed include C13 to C24 n-alkanes; pristane; phytane; C2-, C3-naphthalenes; fluorene; phenanthrene; C1-, C2-, C3-phenanthrenes; fluoranthene; pyrene and dibenzothiophene. Biological half-lives were determined for the compounds from Day-3 to Day-29 following the spill and ranged from 1.5 days for C2-naphthalenes to 9.9 days for C2-phenanthrenes. Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometer analyses of C2- and C3-phenanthrenes revealed changes in relative abundance of compounds within isomer groups from samples at Day-29 to the time when no further detection of fuel oil was noted. The study also demonstrated the feasibility of training an analyst unfamiliar with analyses of hydrocarbons in tissues to conduct high resolution glass capillary GC analyses.