Evaluation of CDOM sources and their links with antibiotics in the rivers dividing China and North Korea using fluorescence spectroscopy

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2018-09, Vol.25 (27), p.27545-27560
• Main Authors: Mu, Guangyi, Ji, Meichen, Li, Sijia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Anti-Bacterial Agents - analysis; Antibiotics; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biogeochemical cycles; Biogeochemistry; Chemical composition; China; Correlation analysis; Cycles; Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Dissolved organic matter; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Emission analysis; Enrofloxacin; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental science; Factor analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Fluorescence; Fluorescence spectroscopy; Human influences; Humic Substances - analysis; Humification; Land cover; Land pollution; Metronidazole; Norfloxacin; Optical properties; Organic chemistry; Pollution; Pollution sources; Redundancy; Regression analysis; Research Article; Rivers; Rivers - chemistry; Spatial distribution; Sulfamethoxazole; Surface water; Tryptophan; Variation; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water Quality
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-2773-9

Rivers act as carriers where active cycling of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) affected by anthropogenic activities and land cover variation may occur. Little is known about the optical properties of CDOM in relation to antibiotics; these properties could provide valuable insights into CDOM transformation processes and biogeochemical reactivity. The spatial distribution of CDOM absorption, fluorescence intensities of CDOM components, and correlations between fluorescence indices ( FI 370 , humification index ( HIX )) and biological index ( BIX )) with water quality and antibiotics were investigated in three rivers, namely, two rivers (Yalu River and Tumen River) dividing China and North Korea, and the Songhua River. Four humic-like components (C1 and C3–5), and one tryptophan-like component (C2), were identified via fluorescence excitation-emission matrices-parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC). The correlation between F max for five EEM-PARAFAC extracted CDOM components, C1–C5, FI 370 , HIX , BIX, and water quality parameters, and four antibiotics (i.e., Norfloxacin, Enrofloxacin, Sulfamethoxazole and Metronidazole), were determined through a redundancy analysis (RDA), with species-environment correlations of 0.887 and 0.833, respectively. The results showed that spatial variation in land cover, pollution sources, and terrestrial contribution in water quality affected F max for the fluorescent components C1–C5 and the fluorescence indices, indicating a high diverse chemical composition and transformation history. The F max for terrestrial humic-like components, C4 and C5, showed spatial variation depending on land cover and anthropogenic impacts. Further correlation and regression analyses indicated that CDOM soil fulvic-like component C5 correlated with Sulfamethoxazole and Metronidazole ( t test, p