title: Organic chemicals jeopardize the health of freshwater ecosystems on the continental scale.
abstract: Organic chemicals can contribute to local and regional losses of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, their overall relevance regarding larger spatial scales remains unknown. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first risk assessment of organic chemicals on the continental scale comprising 4,000 European monitoring sites. Organic chemicals were likely to exert acute lethal and chronic long-term effects on sensitive fish, invertebrate, or algae species in 14% and 42% of the sites, respectively. Of the 223 chemicals monitored, pesticides, tributyltin, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and brominated flame retardants were the major contributors to the chemical risk. Their presence was related to agricultural and urban areas in the upstream catchment. The risk of potential acute lethal and chronic long-term effects increased with the number of ecotoxicologically relevant chemicals analyzed at each site. As most monitoring programs considered in this study only included a subset of these chemicals, our assessment likely underestimates the actual risk. Increasing chemical risk was associated with deterioration in the quality status of fish and invertebrate communities. Our results clearly indicate that chemical pollution is a large-scale environmental problem and requires far-reaching, holistic mitigation measures to preserve and restore ecosystem health.
authors: Department of Effect-Directed Analysis, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany;Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany; egina.malaj@ufz.de schaefer-ralf@uni-landau.de.
authors: Egina
authors: E
authors: Malaj
authors: Department of Effect-Directed Analysis, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany;Amalex Environmental Solutions, 04103 Leipzig, Germany;
authors: Peter C
authors: PC
authors: von der Ohe
authors: National Hydraulics and Environment Laboratory, Research and Development Division, Electricité de France, 78401 Chatou, France;
authors: Matthias
authors: M
authors: Grote
authors: Department of Ecological Chemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany;
authors: Ralph
authors: R
authors: Kühne
authors: Department of Systems Analysis, Integrated Assessment and Modelling, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; and.
authors: Cédric P
authors: CP
authors: Mondy
authors: Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Continental Environments, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7360, University of Lorraine, 57070 Metz, France.
authors: Philippe
authors: P
authors: Usseglio-Polatera
authors: Department of Effect-Directed Analysis, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, 04318 Leipzig, Germany;
authors: Werner
authors: W
authors: Brack
authors: Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau, Germany; egina.malaj@ufz.de schaefer-ralf@uni-landau.de.
authors: Ralf B
authors: RB
authors: Schäfer
mesh_terms: D057225:Data Mining / Q000379:methods; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005060:Europe; D005618:Fresh Water; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: ecological data; effect thresholds; river basins; streams; toxicity