Chemical contamination in southwest Puerto Rico: An assessment of organic contaminants in nearshore sediments

Characteristics of organic chemical contaminants occurring in sediments adjacent to coral reefs and hard bottom substrates in southwest Puerto Rico are examined. An analysis of the sediment data from southwest Puerto Rico reveals no significant difference in the mix of low molecular weight (LMW) and high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs in the sediment samples, which will indicate a mixture of both petrogenic and pyrogenic sources of the PAHs. The pairwise comparison indicates that the concentrations of total PAHs in the backreefs are significantly lower than in the lagoon areas. The degradation of coral reef ecosystems worldwide leads to intensive efforts to understand and mitigate the stressors responsible for the declines of the valued and fragile ecosystems.