Spatial and Temporal Variability of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Sediments from Yellow River-Dominated Margin

Table 1

Linear correlations () of TOC against PAH concentration (ng g⁻¹ dws) along the transect of lower Yellow River (YR), river mouth, and adjacent sea.

PAHs	lower YR	Modern estuary	Old estuary	Coast	Entire areas
2 + 3 rings	0.60	0.60	0.62	0.97	0.63
4 rings	0.57	0.39	0.82	0.96	0.53
5 + 6 rings	0.59	0.55	0.75	0.95	0.54

All probability () values are lower than 0.001. The number of samples () is 12 for the lower YR, 7 for the old estuary, 13 for the modern estuary, and 7 for the coast.