Application of organic environmental markers in the assessment of recent and fossil organic matter input in coal wastes and river sediments : a case study from the Upper Silesia Coal Basin (Poland)

Abstract

Various types of coal waste material (fresh, self-heated, soil-covered) and river sediments polluted by coal dust were studied. Characteristic geochemical features of recent vegetation input in river sediments were identified, e.g. the dominance of n-alkanols and n-alkanoic acids over n-alkanes. In the river sediments, several coal-related compounds were also found, e.g. n-alkylbenzenes, acetophenone and methylated phenols. The occurrence of sterols, stanols, vanillin, and methylbenzoic, benzeneacetic, oxalic, succinic and levulinic acids in coal waste samples (with the exception of fresh coal wastes) may indicate primitive soil-forming processes related to vegetation and moss cover. These compounds were also commonly identified in river sediments. Their distribution, characteristic of extant (as opposed to fossil) organic matter, was confirmed by several applied geochemical ratios, such as the EOP index (even-over-odd predominance) of fatty acids, (Σn-alkanoic acid + Σlong chain n-alkanes)/Σshort chain n-alkanes or (Σn-alkanoic acids + Σn-alkanols)/Σn-alkanes and various CPI (carbon preference indexes of n-alkanes).