Lorentz Benjamin, Rauhauser Madeleine, Krantz Ryan T, Snow Daniel D, Kelly John J
Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States.
School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, United States.
Front Microbiol. 2025 Aug 26;16:1649739. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1649739. eCollection 2025.
Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent can be a point source of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) to surface waters, and these biologically active compounds have the potential to select for resistant traits and taxa within aquatic microbial communities. The goals of this study were to determine if WWTP effluent is a point source of PPCPs to urban streams; to determine if effluent inputs affect benthic microbial community composition; and to determine if effluent inputs increase the abundance of antibiotic resistance determinants within benthic microbial communities. We collected water and sediment from three streams in the Chicago metro area: two urban streams that receive WWTP effluent and one rural stream that does not receive effluent. We quantified concentrations of a suite of 45 common PPCPs in water samples from each stream, including sites upstream and downstream of effluent inputs to the urban streams, analyzed benthic bacterial community composition, and quantified the abundance of , a gene linked to antibiotic resistance. A stream receiving 80% of its flow from effluent showed higher concentrations of ten PPCPs, including several antibiotics, downstream of the effluent input, as well as decreased abundance of photosynthetic organisms and shifts in bacterial community composition, implicating effluent as the driver of these changes. We did not observe differences between upstream and downstream sites in a stream receiving only 13% of its flow from effluent. The gene did not differ in abundance within streams in response to effluent input, but abundance and PPCP concentrations were higher in the urban streams than in the rural stream. These results indicate that watershed-scale anthropogenic impacts were the driver of abundance and that non-point sources contributed to PPCP pollution.
污水处理厂（WWTP）的废水可能是地表水中药品和个人护理产品（PPCPs）的一个点源，并且这些生物活性化合物有可能在水生微生物群落中选择抗性特征和分类群。本研究的目标是确定污水处理厂废水是否是城市溪流中PPCPs的点源；确定废水输入是否影响底栖微生物群落组成；以及确定废水输入是否增加底栖微生物群落中抗生素抗性决定因素的丰度。我们从芝加哥都会区的三条溪流中采集了水和沉积物：两条接收污水处理厂废水的城市溪流和一条不接收废水的农村溪流。我们对每条溪流的水样中一组45种常见PPCPs的浓度进行了定量，包括城市溪流废水输入点的上游和下游位点，分析了底栖细菌群落组成，并对与抗生素抗性相关的基因的丰度进行了定量。一条80%的水流来自废水的溪流在废水输入下游显示出十种PPCPs的浓度较高，包括几种抗生素，同时光合生物的丰度降低且细菌群落组成发生变化，这表明废水是这些变化的驱动因素。我们在一条只有13%的水流来自废水的溪流中未观察到上游和下游位点之间的差异。基因的丰度在溪流中对废水输入没有差异响应，但城市溪流中的丰度和PPCP浓度高于农村溪流。这些结果表明流域尺度的人为影响是丰度的驱动因素，并且非点源导致了PPCP污染。
