Spatial (bio)accumulation of pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, plasticisers, perfluorinated compounds and metabolites in river sediment, aquatic plants and benthic organisms

Abstract

Organic contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PPCPs) and other emerging contaminants (ECs) are known to persist in the aquatic environment and many are indicated as endocrine, epigenetic, or other toxicants. Typically, the study of PPCPs/ECs in the aquatic environment is limited to their occurrence dissolved in river water. In this study, accumulation and spatial distribution of thirteen PPCPs/ECs were assessed in aquatic sediment (n = 23), periphyton (biofilm, n = 8), plants Callitriche sp. (n = 8) and Potamogeton sp. (n = 7) as well as amphipod crustaceans (Gammarus pulex, n = 10) and aquatic snails (Bithynia tentaculata, n = 9). All samples (n = 65) were collected from the Hogsmill, Blackwater and Bourne Rivers in southern England. Targeted PPCPs/ECs included pharmaceuticals, plasticisers, perfluorinated compounds, illicit drugs and metabolites. Extraction from solid matrices occurred using ultrasonic-assisted extraction followed by an in-house validated method for solid-phase extraction and subsequent liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry. Field-derived bioconcentration-factors and biota-sediment accumulation-factors were determined for all studied biota. Residues of studied contaminants were found in all sediment and biota. Concentrations of contaminants were generally higher in biota than sediment. Evidence suggests that the studied aquatic plants may effectively degrade bisphenol-A into its main transformation product hydroxyacetophenone, potentially mediated by cytochrome p450 and internalisation of contaminants into the cellular vacuole. A positive association between both hydrophobicity and PFC chain length and contaminant accumulation was observed in this work. Only PFCs, plasticisers and HAP were classified as either 'bioaccumulative' or 'very bioaccumulative' using BCF criteria established by guidelines of four governments. Contaminants appeared to be differentially bioaccumulative in biota, indicating there may be a need for a species-specific BCF/BSAF classification system. These data form a detailed accounting of PPCP/EC fate and distribution in the aquatic environment highlighting accumulation at lower trophic levels, a potential source for higher organisms.

Internal Concentrations in Gammarids Reveal Increased Risk of Organic Micropollutants in Wastewater-Impacted Streams

“…compared to values reported in other studies investigating field gammarids. 20,[22][23][24]38 For some 262 substances, a similar or higher number of detections was found upstream compared to downstream,…”

Impact of fullerenes in the bioaccumulation and biotransformation of venlafaxine, diuron and triclosan in river biofilms

“…Due to its close contact with the water column and streams, biofilm uptakes organic and inorganic nutrients from the water, but also microcontaminants and other toxicants, either by uptake or physical adsorption, mainly by their retention in the mucopolysaccharide matrix (Sabater et al, 2007). In this way, biofilm showed the ability to accumulate organic microcontaminants (Huerta et al, 2016;Ruhí et al, 2016;Wilkinson et al, 2018) at concentrations up to few hundred ng g -1 , as well as to degrade them (Sabater et al, 2007;Writer et al, 2011). In fact, river biofilms have been used in ecotoxicological studies to evaluate the impact of multiple stressors (e.g.…”

Identification of Enantiomeric Byproducts During Microalgae-Mediated Transformation of Metoprolol by MS/MS Spectrum Based Networking

“…The occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the wastewater is an issue of great concern, because current wastewater treatment processes can not effectively remove them ( Sun et al, 2014 ; Ashfaq et al, 2017 ; Ben et al, 2018 ). Therefore, residual pharmaceuticals in the wastewater treatment plant effluent are discharged into the receiving water, leading to the ubiquitous detection of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment worldwide ( Lv et al, 2014 ; Sun et al, 2016 ; Tarpani and Azapagic, 2018 ; Wilkinson et al, 2018 ). With the increasing concern of the potential risks which pharmaceuticals could pose to ecology and human health, enhanced removals of pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment systems are increasingly needed.…”