Distribution and ecological risk assessment of typical antibiotics in the surface waters of seven major rivers, China

Abstract

The consumption and production of antibiotics in China rank highest in the world. As such, the occurrence of antibiotics in environmental media of China has raised significant concerns. Rivers play an important role in the sustainable development of China's economy and society, possibly causing high levels and detection frequencies of antibiotics in the aquatic environment of rivers in China. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the distribution and risk level of antibiotics in rivers. From south to north, China has seven major rivers vertically and horizontally. They are Yangtze River, Yellow River, Hai River, Liao River, Huai River, Songhua River and Pearl River. In this review, we made an extensive literature survey and published all studies on antibiotic concentrations in seven river systems of China from 2010 to 2020 were sorted out to provide a clear draw of the distribution characteristics of antibiotics. We found that 70 antibiotics have been detected in the seven major river systems. 13 typical antibiotics in surface waters of seven river systems were systematically reviewed and ecological risk assessment was conducted. The occurrence frequencies of high-risk antibiotics in surface waters followed the rank order: ETM–H₂O > CIP > OFX > SMX > NOR. The RQ_s values of seven rivers decreased in the order of Hai River (1.58–18 094.3) > Liao River (1.14–290.23) > Pearl River (2.11–118.25) > Yangtze River (0.3–64.78) > Yellow River (7.56–35.45) > Songhua River (0.03–22.26) > Huai River (1.87–20.83).