title: Impact of wastewater treatment plant discharge on the contamination of river biofilms by pharmaceuticals and antibiotic resistance.
abstract: Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are one of the main sources of pharmaceutical residue in surface water. Epilithic biofilms were collected downstream from 12 WWTPs of various types and capacities to study the impacts of their discharge through the changes in biofilm composition (compared to a corresponding upstream biofilm) in terms of pharmaceutical concentrations and bacterial community modifications (microbial diversity and resistance integrons). The biofilm is a promising indicator to evaluate the impacts of WWTPs on the surrounding aquatic environment. Indeed, the use of biofilms reveals contamination hot spots. All of the downstream biofilms present significant concentrations (up to 965ng/g) of five to 11 pharmaceuticals (among the 12 analysed). Moreover, the exposition to the discharge point increases the presence of resistance integrons (three to 31 fold for Class 1) and modifies the diversity of the bacterial communities (for example cyanobacteria). The present study confirms that the discharge from WWTPs has an impact on the aquatic environment.
authors.affiliation: University of Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7285 IC2MP, Department of Water and Geochemistry, ENSIP, 1 Rue Marcel Doré, TSA 41105, 86073 Poitiers Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Elodie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aubertheau
authors.affiliation: University of Limoges, INSERM UMR-S1092, Faculté de Médecine, 2 rue du Docteur Marcland, 87065 Limoges Cedex, France; University of Limoges, GRESE EA4330, ENSIL, 16 rue Atlantis, 87068 Limoges Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Thibault
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stalder
authors.affiliation: University of Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7285 IC2MP, Department of Water and Geochemistry, ENSIP, 1 Rue Marcel Doré, TSA 41105, 86073 Poitiers Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mondamert
authors.affiliation: University of Limoges, INSERM UMR-S1092, Faculté de Médecine, 2 rue du Docteur Marcland, 87065 Limoges Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Cécile
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ploy
authors.affiliation: University of Limoges, INSERM UMR-S1092, Faculté de Médecine, 2 rue du Docteur Marcland, 87065 Limoges Cedex, France; University of Limoges, GRESE EA4330, ENSIL, 16 rue Atlantis, 87068 Limoges Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dagot
authors.affiliation: University of Poitiers, UMR CNRS 7285 IC2MP, Department of Water and Geochemistry, ENSIP, 1 Rue Marcel Doré, TSA 41105, 86073 Poitiers Cedex, France. Electronic address: jerome.labanowski@univ-poitiers.fr.
authors.forename: Jérôme
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Labanowski
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial / Q000235:genetics*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000382:microbiology; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000382:microbiology; D014871:Water Microbiology; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Antibiotic resistance; Biofilms; Pharmaceuticals; River quality; Wastewater