engleski

Bioaccumulation of Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Macrophytes

Pollution with sewage effluents causes the presence of various emerging contaminants, like pharmaceuticals (PhACs) and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), in surface waters worldwide. Their environmental fate and effects on aquatic biota are still largely unexplored. Macrophytes, aquatic plants and mosses, are often used in phytoremediation experiments, due to their ability to accumulate various contaminants from the environment. Macrophytes could, therefore, potentially act like storage units for some of the PhACs and EDCs and could reintroduce them into environment through food webs. In order to examine the bioaccumulation patterns of the PhACs and EDCs in macrophytes, we conducted a field study on five rivers in Croatia. We selected 10 sampling sites to represent effluent impacted watercourses and clean controls. In addition to macrophytes, we also sampled water and biofilm at each site. Samples were screened for contaminants using an ultra- performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system coupled to a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. A total of 23 compounds were detected, mostly additives and industrial chemicals. Water samples from impacted sites had generally highest numbers of detected compounds, followed by macrophyte samples, whereas lowest number was detected in biofilm samples. We also aimed at testing the potential variation of PhACs and EDCs bioaccumulation patterns between mosses and higher aquatic plants, however, preliminary results indicate that there are no differences. Furthermore, in order to assess possible differences in distribution of accumulated PhACs and EDCs in different parts of aquatic plants, roots and leaves were analysed separately. Similarly, lower (older) and upper (new) shoots of mosses were analysed separately. Nevertheless, there were no clear trends in number of compounds detected in different parts of both macrophyte groups. The current study contributes to providing understanding on the role of primary producers, such as macrophytes, in accumulation of PhACs and EDCs in aquatic environments.

pharmaceuticals ; endocrine disruptors ; bioaccumulation ; macrophytes

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