Hydrocarbons in Water and Bottom Sediments in Kerch Strait

Abstract

The article gives the results of studies of the concentration and composition of aliphatic hydrocarbons in suspension in surface water and in the surface layer of bottom sediments in April and September 2019 in Kerch Strait compared with other regions of the Black Sea. Notwithstanding the high concentrations of aliphatic hydrocarbons (especially, in the water of the strait itself, i.e., 110–160 µg/L and in sand sediments, i.e., 16–63 µg/g), the composition of alkanes was not of petroleum type because of the rapid transformation of petroleum hydrocarbons. The pollution of water and sediments in the strait manifested itself in a higher concentration of hydrocarbons in the composition of lipids and Corg, in the presence of naphthene-aromatic compounds in alkane composition, and in the predominance of phytane over pristine.