Chemical evidence of differential particle dispersal in the southern washington coastal environment |
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| Authors: | Fredrick G Prahl |
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| Institution: | School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 USA |
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| Abstract: | Aliphatic hydrocarbons, cupric oxide oxidation products of lignin and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography in sediments from the southern Washington continental shelf and slope. The concentration of diploptene relative to plantwax increased systematically in surface sediments with distance offshore along east-west transects of the study area and remained constant in surface sediments along the midshelf silt deposit. Analogous trends were also observed for the concentration of cinnamyl phenols relative to vanillyl phenols and total methylphenanthrenes relative to phenanthrene. These changes in sedimentary composition are evidence that diploptene from some terrestrial source, lignin characteristic of non-woody vascular plant tissue and a fossil organic material contained within weathered rock debris disperse across the Washington continental shelf and slope in geographic patterns distinct from that for other river-derived, chemically related materials. The compositional variations are explained by the particulate associations of the land-derived chemicals and differential hydraulic dispersion of their respective carrier particles after discharge at the mouth of the Columbia River. |
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