A novel passive water sampler for in situ sampling of antibiotics

Passive water sampling has several advantages over active methods; it provides time-integrated data, can save on time and cost compared to active methods, and yield high spatial resolution data through co-deployment of simple, cheap units. However, one problem with many sampler designs in current use is that their uptake rates for trace substances of interest are flow-rate dependent, thereby requiring calibration data and other information to enable water concentrations to be derived from the mass per sampler. However, the 'family' of samplers employing the principle of diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) provides an in situ means of quantitatively measuring labile species in aquatic systems without field calibration. So far, this technique has only been tested and applied in inorganic substances: metals, radionuclides, nutrients, etc. Design and applications of DGT to trace organic contaminants ('o-DGT') would be of widespread interest. This study describes the laboratory testing and performance characteristics of o-DGT, with the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole (SMX) as a model compound and XAD18 as the novel binding agent. o-DGT uptake of SMX increased with time and decreased with diffusion layer thickness, confirming the principle for SMX. XAD18 showed sufficiently high capacity for SMX for routine field applications. o-DGT measurement of SMX was independent of pH (6-9) and ionic strength (0.001-0.1 M) and not affected by flow rate once above static conditions. The diffusion coefficient of SMX in the sampler was measured using an independent diffusion cell and information is presented to allow temperature correction and derivation of aqueous concentrations from deployed samplers. The potential use of o-DGT for in situ measurement of pharmaceutical antibiotics is confirmed by this study and applications are briefly discussed.     

Dissolved Oxygen Conditions in Northern Gulf of Mexico Estuaries

Because deficient dissolved oxygen (DO) levels may have severe detrimental effects on estuarine and marine life, DO has been widely used as an indicator of ecological conditions by environmental monitoring programs. The U.S. EPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program for Estuaries (EMAP-E) monitored DO conditions in the estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico from 1991 to 1994. DO was measured in two ways: 1) instantaneous profiles from the surface to the bottom were taken during the day, and 2) continuous measurements were taken near the bottom at 15 min intervals for at least 12 h. This information was summarized to assess the spatial distribution and severity of DO conditions in these estuaries. Depending on the criteria used to define hypoxia (DO concentrations usually <2 mg L-1 or <5 mg L-1) and the method by which DO is measured, we estimate that between 5.2 and 29.3% of the total estuarine area in the Louisianian Province was affected by low DO conditions.     

Toxicological responses to sublethal anticoagulant rodenticide exposure in free-flying hawks

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - An important component of assessing the hazards of anticoagulant rodenticides to non-target wildlife is observations in exposed free-ranging...     

Uncertainty quantification of large-eddy simulation results of riverine flows: a field and numerical study

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - We present large-eddy simulations (LES) of riverine flow in a study reach in the Sacramento River, California. The riverbed bathymetry was surveyed in...     

Parasites as conservation tools

Parasite success typically depends on a close relationship with one or more hosts; therefore, attributes of parasitic infection have the potential to provide indirect details of host natural history and are biologically relevant to animal conservation. Characterization of parasite infections has been useful in delineating host populations and has served as a proxy for assessment of environmental quality. In other cases, the utility of parasites is just being explored, for example, as indicators of host connectivity. Innovative studies of parasite biology can provide information to manage major conservation threats by using parasite assemblage, prevalence, or genetic data to provide insights into the host. Overexploitation, habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, and climate change are major threats to animal conservation, and all of these can be informed by parasites.     

Fully-automated SPE coupled to UHPLC-MS/MS method for multiresidue analysis of 26 trace antibiotics in environmental waters: SPE optimization and method validation

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Achieving simultaneous determination of antibiotic multiresidues in environmental waters by solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled with...