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Abstract. Antibiotics are widely used to treat or prevent human and animal diseases, as well as to promote the growth of animals in livestock breeding and aquaculture. As a type of antibacterial drugs, antibiotics have been widely applied in human/animal disease prevention, disease treatment, animal husbandry and aquaculture, etc. A majority of antibiotics introduced into human/animal cannot be utilized directly, leading to the result that more than 85% antibiotics were discharged into the environment. Once antibiotics enter the ecosystems, they could influence the evolution of the community structure, which according affect the ecological function of aquatic environment. Correspondingly, antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) have been found, which is threatening ecological safety and human health. In this review, five parts were discussed in detail: (1) the source of antibiotics in the environment; (2) the determination of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment; (3) the spatial distribution of antibiotics and in the environment; (4) the fate of antibiotics in the environment; (5) the toxicological effects of antibiotics. Moreover, the existing problems and future research directions are proposed.