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Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemoenvironment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2023) | Viewed by 9679

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jiannan Ding

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Guest Editor

1. School of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China
2. Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, Suzhou 215009, China
Interests: emerging contaminants; biomarker; freshwater; toxicology; pharmaceuticals and personal care products; microplastics

Dr. Haohan Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Environment Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
Interests: toxicological effect; ecological risk assessment of emerging contaminants

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the increasing population and economic development, the water bodies around the world are suffering from many environmental contaminants. These contaminants can have adverse effects on non-target aquatic organisms and induce ecological risks in aquatic environments. In recent decades, the risk of water body pollution has been a topic of great concern. In this context, the accurate assessment of the ecological risks of water body pollution is quite important, as it could better ensure that decision making is technically supported.

Although ecological risk assessments have been applied in various water bodies, challenges remain in almost all stages of assessment schemes, such as pollutant screening, toxicological endpoint evaluation, assessment frameworks, etc. In recent years, the challenges have been growing due to the increasing diversity and complexity of conventional (e.g., eutrophication, heavy metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and emerging (e.g., pharmaceuticals and personal care products, microplastics, and novel brominated flame retardants) contaminants released into water bodies. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic is profoundly changing everybody’s lives, including the status of water body pollution. For example, the pollution of personal protective equipment (PPE) has raised public concern in the last year.

Thus, it is necessary to improve assessment schemes that can accurately indicate the health status of site receptors. This Special Issue invites contributions on all aspects of the ecological risk assessment of water body pollution, such as conventional and emerging contaminant screening, toxicological endpoint evaluation, the improvement of assessment schemes, etc. Papers relating to the ecological risk assessment of water body pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic are especially welcome.

Dr. Jiannan Ding
Dr. Haohan Yang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

risk assessment
emerging contaminants
pollutant screening
toxicological endpoint
assessment framework

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 7978 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Distribution, Bioaccumulation, and Risks of Pharmaceutical Metabolites and Their Parents: A Case Study in an Yunliang River, Nanjing City

by Zhenhua Yan, Yixin Zhou, Yan Zhang and Xiadong Zhang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(4), 2967; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20042967 - 8 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1824

Abstract

The occurrence, bioaccumulation, and risks of 11 pairs of pharmaceutical metabolites and their respective parents were investigated in the water, sediment, and fish of an urban river in Nanjing city, China. The results showed that most of the target metabolites and their parents were detected in all water samples, with concentrations ranging from 0.1 ng/L to 72.9 ng/L. In some cases, the concentrations of metabolites in water were significantly higher than their parents, with fold changes reaching up 4.1 in the wet season and 6.6 in the dry season, while in sediment and fish, a lower concentration was observed in most cases. A lowered concentration of detected pharmaceuticals was observed in the dry season when compared to the wet season due to the seasonal variation in pharmaceutical consumption and overflow effluent. The bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals in different fish tissues were detected with a descending order of overall concentration as gill > brain > muscle > gonad > intestine > liver > blood. In addition, the concentrations of both metabolites and their parents also decreased along the river in two seasons. However, the concentration rates of metabolites and their parents were significantly altered along the river in both water and sediment. The relatively high concentration proportions of the detected pharmaceuticals in water suggested that pharmaceuticals were more likely to apportion in water than in sediment, especially for the metabolites. Meanwhile, the rates of the metabolite/parent pairs between fish and water/sediment were generally lower, indicating the higher excretion capacity of metabolites from fish than their parents. Most of the detected pharmaceuticals had no impact on aquatic organisms. However, the presence of ibuprofen posed a medium risk to fish. Compared to the parents, metabolites showed a relatively low risk value but a high contribution to the total risk. It highlights that metabolites in the aquatic environments cannot be ignored. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution)

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15 pages, 2269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Oxidative Stress of Cadmium and Lead at Environmentally Relevant Concentrations on Hepatopancreas of Macrobrachium nipponensis and Their Mixture Interactivity: Implications for Water Quality Criteria Amendment

by Xiang Liu, Qianzhen Deng, Hao Yang, Jingyao Wang and Min Wang

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(1), 360; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010360 - 26 Dec 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1475

Abstract

The biotoxicity of heavy metals in water has always been the focus of ecological health research. In this study, the oxidative stress-associated toxicity of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) at environmentally relevant concentrations on the hepatopancreas of Macrobrachium nipponensis was investigated based on multiple biomarker responses in a 28-day indoor exposure study. Changes in integrated biomarker responses (IBR) and their interactivity were subsequently analyzed. No dead individuals were found across any of the tested conditions. The chronic toxicity of heavy metals depended on their type and exposure time at the same concentration. At low concentrations, organisms have a regulatory capacity to cope with the excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by Pb stress over time. In detail, the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) was inhibited by Pb stress at a high concentration as time passed. The sensitivity of metallothionein (MT) to Cd was stronger than Pb, and the potential for Cd to cause lipid peroxidation damage was higher than Pb. At the same time, Pb had a greater disturbance effect on the nervous system than Cd, especially in the early exposure stage. The contribution of Cd and Pb to the interaction effect varied dynamically with time and concentration of exposure, but mostly showed antagonism. The results of this study have important significance for guiding the diagnosis of ecological water health, the amendment of water quality criteria, and the management of wastewater discharge. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution)

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15 pages, 3279 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comprehensive Assessment of Eutrophication in Xiamen Bay and Its Implications for Management Strategy in Southeast China

by Yang Luo, Jin-Wen Liu, Jian-Wei Wu, Zheng Yuan, Ji-Wei Zhang, Chao Gao and Zhi-Yu Lin

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 13055; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192013055 - 11 Oct 2022

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1822

Abstract

The eutrophication of coastal water has been a critical environmental problem in China’s offshore areas. How to effectively assess the status of coastal waters is key for pollution treatment and environmental protection. In recent years, eutrophication-symptom-based and multi-indicator methods, termed “phase II” methods, have been gradually adopted to assess the eutrophication status in some coastal waters in China and have achieved success. The cumulative quantile is typically selected to determine the characteristic value of an indicator in “phase II” methods. The influence of small-scale damaged water bodies on eutrophication assessment may be exaggerated, which often leads to the overassessment of the eutrophication status. In this study, the area ratio method was integrated into the assessment of the estuarine trophic status (ASSETS) method in order to assess the eutrophication status of Xiamen Bay in 2016. The results indicated that, in 2016, the eutrophication status of Xiamen Bay coastal waters was moderate and exhibited spatiotemporal variation. The area ratio method can effectively reduce the effect of small-scale coastal waters with extremely high eutrophication on the overassessment of eutrophication at the broader scale, allowing the eutrophication status to be better reflected, even with limited observation data. The centralized distribution of pollution sources and poor hydrodynamic conditions are the main reasons for the aforementioned phenomenon. Controlling the pollution discharge from the Jiulong River in flood seasons is key to reducing eutrophication in Xiamen coastal waters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution)

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15 pages, 3455 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Roles of Different Fractions in Freshwater Biofilms in the Photodegradation of Methyl Orange and Bisphenol A in Aqueous Solutions

by Haojie Yin, Lingling Wang, Guangshu Zeng, Longfei Wang and Yi Li

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(20), 12995; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192012995 - 11 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1496

Abstract

Freshwater biofilms play an important role in the migration and transformation of organic pollutants, especially under illumination conditions. Nonetheless, the roles of variable fractions in freshwater biofilms, e.g., extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), microbial cells and original biofilms, in promoting the photodegradation of trace organic pollutants remain largely unclear. In this study, two contaminants, i.e., methyl orange (MO) and bisphenol A (BPA), were selected, and the roles of different fractions in freshwater biofilms in their photodegradation performances were investigated. After dosing 696 mg/L SS biofilm harvested from an effluent-receiving river, the direct photodegradation rate of MO and BPA was increased 8.7 times and 5.6 times, respectively. River biofilm EPS contained more aromatic fractions, chromogenic groups and conjugated structures than biofilm harvested from a less eutrophic pond, which might be responsible for the enhanced photodegradation process. The quenching experiments suggested that when EPS fractions derived from river biofilm were dosed, ³EPS* was the major reactive oxygen species during the photodegradation of MO and BPA. Meanwhile, for EPS derived from the pond biofilm, ·OH/¹O₂ was predominantly responsible for the enhanced photodegradation. Batch experimental results suggested that the cells and EPS in river biofilms could collaboratively interact with each other to enhance the preservation of reactive species and protection of microbes, thus facilitating the photoactivity of biofilms. Our results might suggest that biofilms generated from eutrophic waterbodies, such as effluent-receiving rivers, could play a more important role in the photodegradation processes of contaminants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution)

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17 pages, 3571 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products across Different Water Bodies in Taihu Lake Basin, China: Occurrence, Source, and Flux

by Jichao Huang, Jiannan Ding, Hang Jiang, Zhenguo Wang, Lixing Zheng, Xiaojun Song and Hua Zou

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(17), 11135; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191711135 - 5 Sep 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2154

Abstract

Although pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) have attracted great attentions, their occurrence characteristics across different water bodies at a basin scale remain poorly understood. To grasp a more comprehensive understanding of PPCP pollution from the perspective of the whole basin, the occurrence, spatial and seasonal variation, source, and flux of thirteen PPCPs across the different environmental compartments of the northern Taihu Lake Basin (TLB) were studied. The results showed that the non-therapeutic pharmaceuticals caffeine (CFI) and n, n-diethyl-m-toluamide (DEET) were the main components across the different environmental compartments. The total concentrations of detected PPCPs ranged from 0.2 to 2437.9 ng/L. Higher concentrations of PPCPs were observed in spring and autumn, which were mainly attributed to seasonal differences in PPCP consumption. Generally, pollution level was higher in industry and agriculture area and in the inner bay and southwest of Taihu Lake. Source apportionment indicated that untreated water was the main source of PPCPs in river waters of the northern TLB. Flux estimation showed that the mean annual flux of PPCPs from northern TLB to Taihu Lake in 2021 was 1.6 t/a, which was higher in comparison with other areas. Overall, the resulting data will be useful to enrich the research of PPCPs in freshwater for environmental investigations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecological Risk Assessment of Water Body Pollution)

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