Preliminary aquatic life criteria development and ecological risk assessment of ammonia in seven major river basins in China

Ammonia is one of the basin indices which are nation-controlled in the waterenvironmental management. In order to assess the differences of ammonia criteria indifferent basins, 7 major basins are used for the study object, including Songhua River,Liaohe River, Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River and ZhujiangRiver, referring the water environmental criteria technology of the United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency, based on the effects of water characteristics on theecotoxicity of ammonia, and in summer and non-summer situation, aquatic life criteriais derived for ammonia. The results showed that: (a) The differences between thecriteria values in different basins and different seasons were significant. The differencesbetween the criteria values in different basins were greater than 6 times, while those indifferent seasons in the same basin were greater than 2 times. (b) The summer acuteand chronic criteria for Huaihe River were 0.37 mg/L and 0.06 mg/L while thenon-summer values were 0.81 mg/L and 0.15 mg/L. Both the summer and thenon-summer values were lowest in all of the seven basins. (c) The preliminaryassessment of Ammonia exposure ecological risk indicated that was the lowest inZhujiang River, and it was much lower in Songhua River, Liaohe River and YangtzeRiver, and was higher in Yellow River, and the highest in both Haihe River and HuaiheRiver. Haihe River has 7 sections while 2 in high risk, and Huaihe River has 27 sectionswhile sixteen in high risk. According to the differences of the criteria values for ammoniain seven basins in different seasons and difference of ammonia ecological riskassessment, it is suggested that it should be managed by different policies.

Source apportionment and specific-source-site risk of quinolone antibiotics for effluent-receiving urban rivers and groundwater in a city, China

There is a large surface-groundwater exchange downstream ofwastewater treatment plants(WWTPs),and antibiotics upstream may influence sites downstream of rivers.Thus,samples from 9 effluent-receiving urban rivers(ERURs)and 12 groundwater sites were collected in Shijiazhuang City in December 2020 and April 2021.For ERURs,8 out of 13 target quinolone antibiotics(QNs)were detected,and the total concentration of QNs in December and April were 100.6-4,398 ng/L and 8.02–2,476 ng/L,respectively.For groundwater,all target QNs were detected,and the total QNs concentration was 1.09–23.03 ng/L for December and 4.54–170.3 ng/L for April.The distribution of QNs was dissimilar between ERURs and groundwater.Most QN concentrations were weakly correlated with land use types in the system.The results of a positive matrix factorization model(PMF)indicated four potential sources of QNs in both ERURs and groundwater,and WWTP effluents were the main source of QNs.From December to April,the contribution of WWTP effluents and agricultural emissions increased,while livestock activities decreased.Singular value decomposition(SVD)results showed that the spatial variation of most QNs was mainly contributed by sites downstream(7.09%-88.86%)of ERURs.Then,a new method that combined the results of SVD and PMF was developed for a specific-source-site risk quotient(SRQ),and the SRQ for QNs was at high level,especially for the sites downstream of WWTPs.Regarding temporal variation,the SRQ for WWTP effluents,aquaculture,and agricultural emissions increased.Therefore,in order to control the antibiotic pollution,more attention should be paid to WWTP effluents,aquaculture,and agricultural emission sources for the benefit of sites downstream of WWTPs.

Occurrence and ecotoxicological risk assessment of pesticides in sediments of the Rosetta branch,Nile River, Egypt

This study aimed to(1) monitor the occurrence and spatiotemporal variations of 100 pesticides in sediments collected monthly from July 2018 to June 2019 from sampling sites in El-Rahawy, Sabal, and Tala, along the Rosetta branch of the Nile River, Egypt, and(2) perform an ecological risk assessment for aquatic organisms upon exposure to the detected sediment pesticides based on the risk quotient(RQ) method. Out of the 100 pesticides monitored, 16 pesticides belonging to seven chemical families were detected, and 55% of the sediment samples were contaminated with one or more pesticide residues. The mean concentration(mg/kg dry weight(dw)) and detection frequency(%) of the four most frequently detected pesticides in the sediment samples were as follows: chlorpyrifos(0.18 mg/kg dw and 34%), p,p-DDE(0.018 mg/kg dw and 30%), cypermethrin(0.03 mg/kg dw and 14%), and deltamethrin(0.026 mg/kg dw and 13%). The spatial distribution exhibited that El-Rahawy had the highest pesticide load(2.86 mg/kg dw) among the studied sites, whereas the temporal variations revealed that the highest total pesticide concentrations were detected in winter season(1.73 mg/kg dw). Meanwhile, 12 pesticides showed high RQs(>1), posing a potential ecological risk to aquatic species that live and feed on such sediments.

Pharmaceutical compounds in aquatic environment in China： locally screening and environmental risk assessment

An environmental risk assessment was performed for pharmaceutical compounds present in the aquatic environment of China. Predicted environmental concentration （PEC） of the compounds were calculated according to European Medicines Evaluation Agency （EMEA） guidelines. Available ecotoxicological data compromised by applying a very conservative assessment factor （AF） were employed to calculate the predicted noeffect concentration （PNEC）. The screening principle and the risk assessment were based on risk quotient （RQ）, which derived from the PEC and related PNEC values. PEC results indicated that all the compounds except sulfadimethoxine and levocamitine, should carry out phase II risk assessment in EMEA guideline. RQ values suggested that more than 36 pharmaceuticals may be imposed health threats to the aquatic environment; especially the antibiotic therapeutic class including amoxicillin, sulfasalazine, trimethoprim, oxytetracycline and erythromycin showed high RQ values. These substances with high RQ value （RQ≥ 1） were regarded as top- priority pharmaceuticals for control in the aquatic environment of China. However, the antibiotic substances which had low risk quotient （RQ 〈 1）, should be reassessed by its potentially induced resistance under low concentration in future.

Integration of chemical and biological methods:A case study of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons pollution monitoring in Shandong Peninsula,China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs),as persistent toxic substances(PTS),have been widely monitored in coastal environment,including seawater and sediment.However,scientific monitoring methods,like ecological risk assessment and integrated biomarker response,still need massive researches to verify their availabilities.This study was performed in March,May,August and October of 2018 at eight sites,Yellow River estuary(S1),Guangli Port(S2),Xiaying(S3),Laizhou(S4),Inner Bay(S5),Outer Bay(S6),Hongdao(S7)and Hongshiya(S8)of Shandong Peninsula,China.The contents of 16 priority PAHs in local seawater and sediment were determined,by which ecological risk assessment risk quotient(RQ)for seawater and sediment quality guidelines(SQGs)were calculated to characterize the PAHs pollution.Meanwhile,multiple biomarkers in the digestive gland of clam Ruditapes philippinarum were measured to represent different biological endpoints,including ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase(EROD),glutathione S-transferase(GST),sulfotransferase(SULT),superoxide dismutase(SOD)and lipid peroxidation(LPO),by which integrated biomarker response(IBR)was calculated to provide a comprehensive assessment of environmental quality.Taken together,these results revealed the heaviest pollution at S2 as both PAHs concentrations and biomarkers responses reflected,and supported the integrated biomarker response as a useful tool for marine environmental monitoring,through its integration with SQGs.