Nature Environment and Pollution Technology

Xiaoteng Xu ¹, Kebin Zhang ¹, Lili Wang ¹, Zhiru Hao ¹, Victor Squires ², Li He ¹

Affiliations
1 School of Soil and Water Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, CN
2 Dryland Management Consultant, Adelaide 5892, AU

Abstract

Ten kinds of antibiotics belonging to tetracyclines, sulfonamides, quinolones and macrolides were detected in water samples from Haihe River, China. Sulfamethoxazole and sulfachlororyridazine had largest detection frequencies (100% and 86%), with the maximum concentrations of 330 ng/L and 380 ng/L, respectively. Friedman and Moran's I test indicated that the target antibiotics at different sampling sites were significantly different (p < 0.05), suggesting that the antibiotics detected in the Haihe River were primarily depended on proximal sources of antibiotics. Municipal wastewater plants, fishponds, and livestock's industries along the river were confirmed to import antibiotics to the tributaries, and then distribute into the mainstream. By studying the variations of relative compositions of antibiotics in both surface water and sediment, we found that sulfonamides had a much higher migration capacity than other antibiotics, quinolones and macrolides deposited in sediment after travelling short distance from sewage outfall and tetracyclines in pollution sources was strongly absorbed in the sediment.

Keywords

Antibiotics, Haihe River, Pollution Sources, Migration Capacity.

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