Antibiotics in coastal water and sediments of the East China Sea: Distribution, ecological risk assessment and indicators screening

Feifei Li; Lyujun Chen; Weidong Chen; Yingyu Bao; Yuhan Zheng; Bei Huang; Qinglin Mu; Donghui Wen; Chuanping Feng

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110810

Antibiotics in coastal water and sediments of the East China Sea: Distribution, ecological risk assessment and indicators screening

Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 Feb:151:110810. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110810. Epub 2020 Jan 29.

Authors

Feifei Li¹, Lyujun Chen², Weidong Chen³, Yingyu Bao³, Yuhan Zheng⁴, Bei Huang⁵, Qinglin Mu⁵, Donghui Wen³, Chuanping Feng⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China; School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Science and Technology, Zhejiang 314006, China.
³ College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁴ School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China.
⁵ Zhejiang Provincial Zhoushan Marine Ecological Environmental Monitoring Station, Zhoushan 316021, China.
⁶ School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: fengcp@cugb.edu.cn.

PMID: 32056603
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110810

Abstract

The distribution of 77 antibiotics in the coastal water and sediment from 3 bays of the East China Sea was investigated. There were 43 and 25 antibiotics detected with total concentrations of 30.8-2106.1 ng/L and 2.2-99.9 ng/g in water and sediment, respectively. Approximately 83.0% and 85.4% of the individual antibiotic concentrations were lower than 5.0 ng/L in water and 1.0 ng/g in sediment. Clindamycin (1.2-1507.9 ng/L, mean 183.8 ng/L) and erythromycin (ND-45.2 ng/g, mean 3.4 ng/g) were the most abundant in water and sediment, respectively. Ecological risk assessment revealed that the joint toxicity was enhanced when multiple antibiotics were present simultaneously. A decrease in the total antibiotic concentration and the ecological risk in water was observed from nearshore to offshore. Three antibiotics (sulfamethoxypyridazine, sulfamethoxazole and cinoxacin) were selected to be prioritized based on ecological risks for antibiotics monitoring and management of the coastal water in the East China Sea.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Coastal environment; Ecological risk assessment.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis*
China
Environmental Monitoring*
Geologic Sediments
Risk Assessment
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Water Pollutants, Chemical