Emerging contaminants in sediments of Yangtze River, Poyang Lake and its tributaries: Relationship investigation and hazard/risk assessment

Emerging contaminants (ECs) have raised worldwide concerns due to their potential environmental and ecological risks. ECs in sediments from the Yangtze River, Poyang Lake, and its tributaries were analyzed to investigate river-lake interaction and assess their hazard and risk. A total of 166 chemicals were identified by nontargeted screening, and their ToxPi hazard scores ranged from 0.0527 to 0.6559. The chemical compositions of different sections in Poyang Lake were dominated by seasonal water exchange, limited hydrological connectivity, and tributary inputs. The spatial distributions of nine representative ECs exhibited halo-like patterns according to targeted and interpolation analysis. The distributions of their hot spots were also influenced by inflows from tributaries and backflow from the Yangtze River. These ECs were mainly sourced from domestic wastewater, industrial emissions, and agricultural non-point source pollution. Netilmicin and mesulfenfos exhibited high risks to aquatic organisms by risk quotient assessment. Insight of ECs behaviors will provide fundamental information to propose potential monitoring management strategies in similar river-lake interaction water bodies.