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Evaluation of the potential for trophic transfer of roxithromycin along an experimental food chain

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Abstract

Pharmaceuticals have been recognized as a new class of environmental pollutants in recent years. But data about their potential for transfer and biomagnification in aquatic food chains are still lacking. In this study, bioaccumulation of the macrolide antibiotic roxithromycin (ROX) was determined in an experimental aquatic food chain involving the green algae Scenedesmus obliquus, the water flea Daphnia magna and the crucian carp Carassius auratus. After 48 h of exposure, S. obliquus accumulated ROX from media, with bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of 74.6, 46.3, and 24.5 l kg−1 at nominal exposure concentrations of 4, 20, and 100 μg l−1, respectively. After 48 h of feeding ROX-contaminated algae, D. magna was able to accumulate ROX in all three concentration treatments, but biomagnification did not occur at this trophic level, as biomagnification factors (BMFs) varied from 0.21 to 0.29 in different concentration treatments were well below one. In tissues (muscle, gill, liver, and bile) of C. auratus fed with contaminated daphnia for 8 days, no biomagnification was observed. However, this species did accumulate a certain degree of ROX through food chain transfer, and the tissue burden was greatest in the liver > muscle > gill and lowest in the bile. This work suggests that the trophic transfer should be a matter of concern for ecological risk assessments of pharmaceutical substances in aquatic food webs.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51279061), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2014B39214), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

Ethical standards

All the here-described experiments comply with the Chinese current laws.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Integrated Regulation and Resources Development on Shallow Lakes of Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Jiannan Ding, Guanghua Lu, Jianchao Liu & Zhenghua Zhang

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  1. Jiannan Ding
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  2. Guanghua Lu
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  3. Jianchao Liu
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  4. Zhenghua Zhang
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Correspondence to Guanghua Lu.

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Responsible editor: Cinta Porte

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Ding, J., Lu, G., Liu, J. et al. Evaluation of the potential for trophic transfer of roxithromycin along an experimental food chain. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 10592–10600 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4265-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4265-5

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