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Occurrence of estrogens in water, sediment and biota and their ecological risk in Northern Taihu Lake in China

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Abstract

Occurrence of five estrogens, including estrone (E1), 17β-estradiol (E2), estriol (E3), 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and bisphenol A (BPA) in water, sediment and biota in Northern Taihu Lake, were investigated and their ecological risk was evaluated. Most of the target estrogens were widely distributed in the eight studied sampling sites, and their levels showed a regional trend of Gong Bay > Meiliang Bay > Zhushan Bay. The average concentrations of E1, E2, E3, EE2 and BPA ranged from 3.86 to 64.4 ng l−1, 44.3 to 64.1 μg kg−1 dry weight and 58.6 to 115 μg kg−1 dry weight in water, sediments and biota, respectively. In most cases, the average concentrations of BPA and E2 were higher than those of other estrogens. E1, E3 and EE2 were found to be accumulated in river snails with bioaccumulation factor values as high as 14,204, 35,327 and 20,127 l kg−1, respectively. E3 was also considered to be accumulated in clams. The evaluation of environmental risk showed that the occurrence of E2 and EE2 in lakes might pose a high risk to aquatic organisms. These findings provide important information for estrogen control and management in the studied area.

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Acknowledgments

This research work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 51109062), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (no. 2012M511674), China Postdoctoral Science Special Foundation (No. 2013T60496), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Hohai University (no. b11020087) and the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of Hohai University (No. 411102).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes of Ministry of Education, College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, People’s Republic of China

    Yonghua Wang, Qiuying Wang, Liangfeng Hu, Guanghua Lu & Yi Li

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  1. Yonghua Wang
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  2. Qiuying Wang
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  3. Liangfeng Hu
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  4. Guanghua Lu
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Correspondence to Yi Li.

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Wang, Y., Wang, Q., Hu, L. et al. Occurrence of estrogens in water, sediment and biota and their ecological risk in Northern Taihu Lake in China. Environ Geochem Health 37, 147–156 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9637-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-014-9637-0

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