Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and po

Scottish coastal sediments from the Forth estuary (2020-2021) and north Aberdeenshire coastline (2023) were analyzed for persistent organic pollutants. The dataset comprises 155 bed sediment surface samples, with 146 from the Forth estuary collected at depths between 2 and 57 meters. These data were collected for a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded project on chemical uptake in coastal food webs.

Use Cases

• Modeling pollutant dispersion in estuaries based on sample locations and depths mentioned in the description.
• Assessing temporal trends of legacy chemicals based on sampling years 2020-2021 and 2023.
• Comparing contamination levels between inner and outer estuary channels based on the described sampling design.
• Studying correlations between different pollutant classes (OCs, PCBs, PBDEs) based on the described analytical methods.

Strengths

• 155 total sediment samples provide a substantial basis for analysis.
• Samples were collected from two distinct geographic areas (Forth estuary and north Aberdeenshire) and time periods.
• Analytical methods (GC-MS and GC-MS/MS) for different pollutant classes are specified.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific Scottish sampling locations.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Sediment samples were collected and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS).

Time Range

2020-2021, 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 16:05:46.111363; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Forth estuary and north Aberdeenshire coastline, Scotland