Antibiotic Pollution Characteristics and Ecological Risk Assessment in Jinjiang River Basin, Jiangxi Province

Abstract

The concentration and distribution characteristics of 27 antibiotics, including 8 sulfonamides, 9 quinolones, 4 tetracyclines, 4 macrolides, and 2 nitroimidazoles, in the surface water, groundwater, and wastewater of the Jinjiang River basin in Jiangxi province were determined using solid-phase extraction combined with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. The results showed that there was antibiotic pollution in the waters of the Jinjiang River basin. A total of 20 antibiotics were detected in the surface water, with a concentration range of 32.3-280 ng·L-1. There were 15 types of antibiotics detected in the groundwater, and the concentration range was 28.4-55.8 ng·L-1. Twenty-one types of antibiotics were detected in the wastewater, with a concentration range of 231-8.71×104 ng·L-1. A comparison with the concentrations of eight common antibiotics in rivers and lakes in China and abroad showed that the pollution level in the Jinjiang River basin was at a medium level. By comparing the concentrations of sulfamethoxazole in groundwater from domestic and international samples, the groundwater pollution in the Jinjiang River basin was clearly in the middle and lower range. A comparison of the concentrations of the three antibiotics in the aquaculture wastewater from domestic and abroad samples indicated that the pollution level of sulfadiazine in the aquaculture wastewater from the Jinjiang River basin was relatively high. The ecological risk assessment results showed that there were nine medium- and high-risk antibiotics, which were clarithromycin, erythromycin, ciprofloxacin, sulfathiazole, roxithromycin, tetracycline, ofloxacin, enrofloxacin, and sulfamethoxazole; the rest were low-risk or no-risk antibiotics.