Source apportionment of the hydrocarbon background in sediment cores from Hecate Strait, a pristine sea on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Significant reserves of oil and gas have been predicted for Hecate Strait, a pristine, semi-enclosed sea on the continental shelf adjacent to British Columbia, on the west coast of Canada. To establish a baseline for the natural background of hydrocarbons in sediment prior to any further offshore oil and gas development or increase in oil tanker traffic in the Hecate Strait region, three sediment box cores were collected along a west to east transect across southern Hecate Strait in September 2003. 210Pb measurements established that the bottom sections date to ∼1920, pre-1800 and ∼1870, respectively, which predate any significant industrial development on the coast. Alkane and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations are low in most sediment samples and both the concentrations and fluxes differ little between surface and bottom core sections. PAH profiles exhibit a dominance of alkyl PAHs for each alkyl PAH homologous series with varying amounts of parent (unsubstituted) PAHs, while alkane chromatograms show no unresolved complex mixture (UCM), and there is little change in composition between present day and pre-1800 sediments for most parameters. Principal components analysis (PCA) models, and PAH and biomarker ratios indicate that composition patterns are consistent with low and varying natural petrogenic and pyrogenic inputs, with little or no anthropogenic input. The most likely primary source of petrogenic PAHs to the sediments is Cenozoic lignites from the Skonun Formation, which outcrops on Haida Gwai and underlies most of Hecate Strait. Two subsurface sections (deposited in ∼1990 and ∼1930) in the core from Milbanke Sound, on the east side of the transect, have elevated concentrations for the alkyl phenanthrene/anthracenes and dibenzothiophenes with no UCM, and most likely also have a source in immature coal. This study suggests that the Hecate Strait environment has low hydrocarbon concentrations, with an apparent minor role for oil seeps and a likelihood that most of the petrogenic PAH sources are shales or immature coals with limited PAH bioavailability. If these characteristics are representative of Hecate Strait sediments overlying the Queen Charlotte Basin, it may mean that biota are likely unadapted to the presence of oil and thus would be more sensitive to exposure to oil from an oil spill than those in a more impacted environment.