Assessment of occurrence, partitioning and ecological risk for 144 steroid hormones in Taihu Lake using UPLC-MS/MS with machine learning model.

Steroid hormones (SHs) have attracted mounting attention due to their endocrine-disrupting effects on humans and aquatic organisms. However, the lack of analytical methods and toxicity data for a large number of SHs has limited the effective management of SH contamination in the water-sediment systems. In this study, we developed a highly sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous quantification of 144 SHs to investigate their occurrence, spatial distribution and partitioning in the water and sediment in Taihu Lake. The results showed that the total concentrations of SHs in water and sediment were 366.88-998.23 ng/L (mean: 612.84 ng/L) and 17.46-150.20 ng/g (mean: 63.41 ng/g), respectively. The spatial distribution of SHs in Taihu Lake might be simultaneously influenced by the pollution sources, lake hydrodynamics, and sediment properties. The sediment-water partitioning result implied that 28 SHs were in dynamic equilibrium at the water-water interface. In addition, 22 and 12 SHs tended to spread to water and settle into sediment, respectively. To assess the ecological risk of all SHs, a robust random forest model (R2 = 0.801) was developed to predict the acute toxicity of SHs for which toxicity data were not available from publications. Risk assessment showed that SHs posed a high ecological risk throughout Taihu Lake, with the highest risk in the northwestern areas. Estrone, 17ß-estradiol and 17α-ethynylestradiol were the dominant risk contributors and were therefore recommended as the priority SHs in Taihu Lake. This work provided a valuable dataset for Taihu Lake, which would help to provide guidance and suggestions for future studies and be useful for the government to develop the mitigation and management measures.

The pollution of microplastics in sediments of the Yangtze River Basin: Occurrence, distribution characteristics, and basin-scale multilevel ecological risk assessment.

Microplastics (MPs) pollution in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) of China has grown to be a serious issue, yet there is a lack of understanding of the environmental risks of MPs in the sediment of the entire basin. This work revealed the spatial distribution characteristics of MPs in YRB sediments, and it methodically assessed the ecological risks of MPs by taking into consideration their abundance, toxic effects, and polymer types. The results showed a high heterogeneity in the abundance of MPs in YRB sediments, with an average of 611 particles/kg dry weight (DW) sediment. Small-sized MPs (<1 mm), fibrous, transparent-colored and polypropylene (PP) accounted for the majority with 71.6%, 68%, 37% and 30.8%, respectively. Correlation analysis indicated significant influences of human activities such as population, industrial structure, and urban wastewater discharge on the abundance and morphological types of MPs in sediments. Based on chronic toxicity data exposed to sediments, a predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC) of 539 particles/kg DW was calculated using the species susceptibility distribution (SSD). Multiple deterministic risk assessment indices indicated that MPs in YRB sediments exhibited primarily low pollution load levels, moderate-to-low potential ecological risk levels, and high levels of polymer pollution. However, probabilistic risk assessment revealed an overall low risk of MPs in YRB sediments. Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrated that polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polycarbonate (PC) made a great contribution to ecological risk and should be considered as priority control pollutants in MPs. In addition, various assessments showed that the ecological risk of MPs in river sediments was higher than that in lake reservoir sediments. This is the first study to comprehensively assess the ecological risk of MPs in sediments of the YRB, which improves the understanding of the basin-wide occurrence characteristics and environmental risks of MPs in freshwater systems.

Pollution levels and risk assessment of thallium in Chinese surface water and sediments.

Thallium (Tl) is one of the most toxic metals and can cause chronic and acute damage to humans. Due to occurrences of incidents involving Tl pollution in China, its potential environmental impacts are receiving increased attention. However, there is still limited information on Tl concentrations in the environment and their risks to human health and wildlife. This paper provides an overview of the contamination of surface water and sediments by Tl across China and assesses the potential risks using several methods. The acute and chronic aquatic life criteria for Tl were determined to be 13.25 and 1.65 µg/L, respectively. The acute and chronic risk quotients (RQs) of Tl in surface water near mining areas were 0.01-41.51 and 0.20-666.67, respectively, indicating medium to high ecological risks to aquatic organisms. Tl in sediments of Pearl and Gaofeng rivers pose a high risk based on the higher geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and potential ecological risk index (EI) values. Exposure parameters for the Chinese population were used to derive health criteria and assess non-carcinogenic risk posed by Tl in centralized drinking water sources. Tl criteria for protection of human health were calculated to be 0.18 µg/L for water+organisms and 0.30 µg/L for organisms only. The non-carcinogenic risk posed by Tl was acceptable. The human health criteria of Tl for children were the lowest among all age groups. The risks posed by Tl to health of children are greater than those for adults. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on protecting children from exposure to Tl. For the Chinese population, the drinking water guidance value to ensure protection of human health was determined to be 0.44 µg/L. The availability of multiple Tl guidance values for designated water uses will improve the environmental regulation and surveillance of Tl pollution in China and other countries.

[Distribution, source and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in river sediment of Cheng-Yu economic zone].

The USEPA 16 priority pollutant dominated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the surface river sediments of Sichuan Province and Chongqing City in southwest China were determined using GC-MS. The result showed the content of PAHs in the sediment ranged from 48.2 ng/g to 723.1 ng/g, with an average value of 276.1 ng/g. Among which, the maximum content was found in Shimenzi of Yangtze River, the minimum content was found in Baiqing of Fujiang River. The content order of PAHs in the sediments followed Yangtze River (358.6 ng/g) > Minjiang River (322.2 ng/g) > Tuojiang River (292.7 ng/g) > Qujiang River (260.6 ng/g) > Jialing River (240.2 ng/g) > Fujiang River (82.4 ng/g). The vertical profiles of c(An)/c(An + Phe), c(FlA)/c(FlA + Pyr) and c(InP)/c (InP + BghiP) suggested the PAHs in this zone were mainly originated from pyrogenic source, the main sources of PAHs were petroleum combustion, biomass combustion, and coal burning. Risk assessment suggested that the PAHs in the sediment of this zone had no significantly biological impairment and low toxicological risk.

[Temporal distribution, sources, and risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sediment core from Miyun reservoir].

The temporal distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was measured in sediment core from Miyun reservoir, and the possible sources and the potential risk assessment also have been identified. The aim of the present work is to understand the temporal trend of PAHs in Miyun reservoir recently. The concentrations of sigma PAH16 in sediment ranged from 618.5 ng/g to 1087.9 ng/g, and roughly, increased continuously from the bottom (16 cm under the surface) to the surface sediment. The PAHs in sediment core were mainly composed of phenanthrene and fluorene. The concentrations of phenanthrene and fluorene in sediment core were 236.1-417.9 ng/g and 91-130.8 ng/g, respectively. Both of them accounted for 47.2%-58.1% of the sigma PAH16 in sediments. Nevertheless, high-rings aromatic hydrocarbons (5-6 rings) were increased steadily in recent years. PAHs compositional profile indicated that the main source of PAHs was originated from the combustion of coal and biomass. However, the vertical profiles of Flu/Flu + Pyr and INP/INP + BghiP ratios suggested that the vehicles emission was increased very recently. Risk assessment suggested that PAHs in sediment from Miyun reservoir was no significant biological impairment, and low toxicological risk of PAHs was found up to now.