Extractives from a Coniferous Bark Dump in Coastal Estuarine Sediments

An investigation was made of intertidal sediments in the vicinity of bark dumps adjacent to the shoreline created in the 1960's as bark waste from a log export port at Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand. Samples collected in a drainage ditch and intertidal sediments near the bark dumps were analysed by GC-FID and by total ion and selected ion mode GC/MS for concentration of log and bark sourced resin acids such as dehydroabietic acid, abietic acid and pimaric acid. Only low concentrations of resin acids (mainly dehydroabietic acid and pimaric acid), together with a series of fatty acids (mainly 16:0 to 30:0 fatty acids) and hydrocarbons (mainly C22to C23n-alkanes) were detected in the sediments of the intertidal flats. Chemical analyses indicated the sediments to be generally oxic.