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Most research on pharmaceutical presence in the environment to date has focused on smaller scale assessments of freshwater and riverine systems, relying mainly on assays of water samples, while studies in marine ecosystems and of exposed biota are sparse. This study investigated the pharmaceutical burden in bonefish (Albula vulpes), an important recreational and artisanal fishery, to quantify pharmaceutical exposure throughout the Caribbean Basin. We sampled 74 bonefish from five regions, and analyzed them for 102 pharmaceuticals. We assessed the influence of sampling region on the number of pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical assemblage, and risk of pharmacological effects. To evaluate the risk of pharmacological effects at the scale of the individual, we proposed a metric based on the human therapeutic plasma concentration (HTPC), comparing measured concentrations to a threshold of 1/3 the HTPC for each pharmaceutical. Every bonefish had at least one pharmaceutical, with an average of 4.9 and a maximum of 16 pharmaceuticals in one individual. At least one pharmaceutical was detected in exceedance of the 1/3 HTPC threshold in 39% of bonefish, with an average of 0.6 and a maximum of 11 pharmaceuticals exceeding in a Key West individual. The number of pharmaceuticals (49 detected in total) differed across regions, but the risk of pharmacological effects did not (23 pharmaceuticals exceeded the 1/3 HTPC threshold). The most common pharmaceuticals were venlafaxine (43 bonefish), atenolol (36), naloxone (27), codeine (27), and trimethoprim (24). Findings suggest that pharmaceutical detections and concentration may be independent, emphasizing the need to monitor risk to biota regardless of exposure diversity, and to focus on risk quantified at the individual level. This study supports the widespread presence of pharmaceuticals in marine systems and shows the utility of applying the HTPC to assess the potential for pharmacological effects, and thus quantify impact of exposure at large spatial scales.
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Environmental conditions explain variability in concentrations of nutrients but not emerging contaminants
Abstract Aquatic ecosystems are subjected to many chemical stressors, including nutrients and emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals. While pharmaceutical concentrations in streams and rivers are often below the thresholds for acute toxicity, they nonetheless disrupt ecology through changes to organisms' physiology, metabolism, and behavior. However, analyzing samples for the wide range of manufactured pharmaceuticals is often prohibitively expensive for many monitoring efforts. As such, the ability to predict pharmaceutical concentrations over space and time using easier‐to‐monitor water quality parameters would expand our understanding of the scope and consequences of pharmaceutical contamination in aquatic ecosystems. We applied random forest models to data from the Baltimore Ecosystem Study to investigate how well routinely monitored water quality parameters could be used to predict concentrations of nutrients and pharmaceuticals. We found that concentrations of nutrients were accurately predicted by these models, but models for predicting concentrations of pharmaceuticals had high error rates and low predictive ability. Differences in our ability to predict concentrations of nutrients as opposed to pharmaceuticals could be due to differences in their sources, chemistries, or behavior in the environment. More concerted efforts to monitor pharmaceutical concentrations over time in aquatic ecosystems may help to resolve environmental drivers of their concentration and improve our ability to predict them.
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- PAR ID:
- 10599868
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecosphere
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 2150-8925
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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