Spatiotemporal variation, fluxes and risk evaluation of neonicotinoid insecticides within the midsection of Yangtze River, China: An exploration as ecological protection threshold

Abstract

Neonicotinoid insecticides (NNIs) have attracted global concern due to its extensive use in agricultural activities and their potential risks to the animal and human health, however, there is limited knowledge on the regional traits and ecological risks of NNIs in the aquatic environments. We herein investigated the occurrence of NNIs within the midsection of Yangtze River in China, offering the inaugural comprehensive report on NNIs within this region. In this study, eleven NNIs were analyzed in 108 river water and sediment samples from three seasons (normal, dry and wet season). We detected a minimum of seven NNIs in the water and four NNIs in the sediment, with total concentrations ranging from 12.33 to 100.5 ng/L in water and 0.08–5.68 ng/g in sediment. The levels of NNIs in both river water and sediment were primarily influenced by the extent of agricultural activities. The estimated annual load of NNIs within the midsection of Yangtze River totaled 40.27 tons, April was a critical contamination period. Relative potency factor (RPF) analysis of the human exposure risk revealed that infants faced the greatest exposure risk, with an estimated daily intake of 11.27 ng kg−1∙bw∙d−1. We established the acute and chronic thresholds for aquatic organisms by employing the Species Sensitive Distribution (SSD) method (acute: 384.1 ng/L; chronic: 168.9 ng/L). Based on the findings from this study, 33% of the river water samples exceeded the chronic ecological risks thresholds, indicating the urgent need for intervention programs to guarantee the safety of the river for aquatic life in the Yangtze River Basin.