Effects of the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of petrogenic oils in the marine water column - phase 2

This project proposal is based on the results from phase 1 of the PROOF project "Effects of the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of petrogenic oils in the marine water column". In this project effects related to the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of in- reservoir biodegraded oils were determined by rapid bioassay screening tests after separation of the water-soluble fractions of the oil in 15 fractions. In this project proposal we suggest a follow-up study to compare the effects of UCM in water-soluble f ractions (WSFs) to effects caused by well-characterized compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), alkylated phenols (AP) and NPD (naphthalenes, phenanthrenes, dibenzothiophenes). The contributions of these well-known compound groups in WSF an d fractions separated on the basis of polar characterstics will be determined on a quantitative basis. The results of these findings will be used for composing synthetic mixtures which will represent the quantitative contributions of AP, PAH and NDP in c rude extracts and individual fractions of WSFs from an UCM-rich oil. The effects of both WSFs, polarity-separated fractions and the different synthetic mixtures will be determined by rapid bioassay screening tests. The results from these screening tests w ill be used to compare the effect caused by PAH, AP and NDP to effects from the UCM-enriched fractions. Further, partly based on advanced chromatographic analysis (GCxGC-Tof MS) of selected WSF fractions a few synthetic UCM compounds present in the oil wi ll be included for generation of toxicity dose-response curves for single chemicals identified.. In this way, toxicity contribution from well-characterized chemicals and less studied UCM-compounds will be given.