title: Antibiotics in riverine runoff of the Pearl River Delta and Pearl River Estuary, China: concentrations, mass loading and ecological risks.
abstract: Ten antibiotics belonging to three groups (macrolides, fluoroquinolones and sulfonamides) were investigated in riverine runoff of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Pearl River Estuary (PRE), South China for assessing the importance of riverine runoff in the transportation of contaminants from terrestrial sources to the open ocean. All antibiotics were detected in the eight outlets with concentrations ranging from 0.7 to 127 ng L(-1). The annual mass loadings of antibiotics from the PRD to the PRE and coast were 193 tons with 102 tons from the fluoroquinolone group. It showed that antibiotics decreased from the riverine outlets to the PRE and open ocean. Risk assessment showed that most of these antibiotics showed various ecological risks to the relevant aquatic organisms, in which ofloxacin (OFL), erythromycin (ETM) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) posed high ecological risks to the studied aquatic environments.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China. Electronic address: whxu@scsio.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Weihai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Xiangdong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yongde
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Xiaoxiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Weixia
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Ruijie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Shichun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D018570:Risk Assessment; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Antibiotics; Ecological risks; Mass loading; Riverine runoff