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River biofilm community changes related to pharmaceutical loads emitted by a wastewater treatment plant

  • Pharmaceuticals and detergents in hospital and urban wastewater: characterisation and impacts
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Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are the main sources of a broad spectrum of pharmaceuticals found in freshwater ecosystems. These pollutants raise environmental health concerns because of their highly bioactive nature and their chronic releases. Despite this, pharmaceuticals’ effects on aquatic environments are poorly defined. Biofilms represent a major part of the microbial life in rivers and streams. They can drive key metabolic cycles and their organizations reflect exposures to changing chemical, physical, and biological constraints. This study estimated the concentrations, over a 3-year period, of ten pharmaceuticals and five nutrients in a river contaminated by a conventional WWTP fed by urban and hospital wastewaters. Variations in these concentrations were related to biofilm bacterial community dynamics. Rock biofilms had developed over defined periods and were harvested at four locations in the river from the up- and downstream WWTP discharge point. Pharmaceuticals were found in all locations in concentrations ranging from not being detected to 192 ng L−1. Despite the high dilution factor of the WWTP effluents by the receiving river, pharmaceuticals were found more concentrated downstream than upstream the WWTP. Shifts in bacterial community structures linked to the environmental emission of pharmaceuticals were superior to seasonal community changes. A community structure from a site located downstream but close to the WWTP was more strongly associated with high pharmaceutical loads and different from those of biofilm samples from the WWTP upstream or far downstream sites. These latter sites were more strongly associated with high nutrient contents. Low environmental concentrations of pharmaceuticals can thus be transferred from WWTP effluents to a connected stream and induce bacterial aquatic community changes over time.

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Abbreviations

CHAL:

Centre Hospitalier Alpes Léman

CD:

Close downstream

CU:

Close upstream

CCL:

Contaminant candidate List

DGGE:

Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis

FD:

Far downstream

FU:

Far upstream

FEON:

Federal Office of the Environment of Switzerland

GWRC:

Global Water Research Coalition

HPLC–MS/MS:

High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a mass spectrometer

HTE:

Hospital treated effluents

HWW:

Hospital wastewater

MDS:

Multidimensional scaling

NSAID:

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

PCA:

Principal component analysis

RDA:

Redundancy analyses

SIPIBEL:

Site Pilote de Bellecombe

SPE:

Solid-phase extraction

TIN:

Total inorganic nitrogen

UTE:

Urban treated effluents

UWW:

Urban wastewater

WWTP:

Wastewater treatment plant

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Acknowledgements

This study was partly funded by Anses project “persist-env” #2012/2/149 of the “Programme Environnement-Santé-Travail” (French Ministers in charge of ecological and environmental issues). This study was part of the SIPIBEL field observatory on hospital’s effluents and urban WWTPs. The work was done in collaboration with V. Lecomte (GRAIE). We thank our institutions for partial funding of this work. We thank B. Montuelle, F. Rimet, R. Sommaruga, and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CARRTEL, INRA, USMB, 75 avenue de Corzent, 74200, Thonon-les-Bains, France

    Teofana Chonova, Cécile Chardon, François Keck, Valentin Vasselon & Agnès Bouchez

  2. Univ Lyon, INSA Lyon, Laboratoire DEEP, EA 7429, 34 avenue des Arts, 69621, Villeurbanne CEDEX, France

    Teofana Chonova

  3. UMR IC2MP 7285, CNRS/Université de Poitiers, ENSIP, 1 rue Marcel Doré, 86073, Poitiers CEDEX 9, France

    Jérôme Labanowski, Élodie Laurent & Leslie Mondamert

  4. UMR Ecologie Microbienne, CNRS 5557, INRA 1418, Université Lyon 1, VetAgro Sup, Main building, aisle 3, 1st floor, 69280, Marcy L’Etoile, France

    Benoit Cournoyer

  5. Univ Lyon, CNRS, Université Lyon 1, Ens de Lyon, Institut des Sciences Analytiques, UMR 5280, 5 rue de la Doua, 69100, Villeurbanne, France

    Laure Wiest

Authors
  1. Teofana Chonova
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  2. Jérôme Labanowski
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  3. Benoit Cournoyer
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  4. Cécile Chardon
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  5. François Keck
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  6. Élodie Laurent
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  7. Leslie Mondamert
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  8. Valentin Vasselon
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  9. Laure Wiest
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  10. Agnès Bouchez
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Correspondence to Teofana Chonova.

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Chonova, T., Labanowski, J., Cournoyer, B. et al. River biofilm community changes related to pharmaceutical loads emitted by a wastewater treatment plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 9254–9264 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0024-0

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