Spatio-temporal bioaccumulation and trophic transfer of ionizable pharmaceuticals in a semi-arid urban river influenced by snowmelt

Bioaccumulation of pharmaceuticals in aquatic organisms is increasingly reported in the peer-reviewed literature. However, seasonal instream dynamics including occurrence and bioaccumulation across trophic positions are rarely studied, particularly in semiarid streams with flows influenced by seasonal snowmelt and municipal effluent discharges. Thus, we selected East Canyon Creek in Park City, Utah, USA to examine spatio-temporal bioaccumulation of select ionizable pharmaceuticals across trophic positions using trophic magnification factors calculated at incremental distances (0.15, 1.4, 13 miles) downstream from a municipal effluent discharge during spring (May), Summer (August), and fall (October). Nine target analytes were detected in all species during all sampling events. Trophic dilution was consistently observed for amitriptyline, caffeine, diphenhydramine, diltiazem, fluoxetine, and sertraline, regardless of seasonal instream flows or distance from effluent discharge. Calculated TMFs ranged from 0.01-0.71 with negative slopes observed for all regressions of chemical residue in tissue and trophic position. We further presents the first empirical investigation of normalizing pharmaceutical concentrations to lipid, phospholipid or protein fractions using pair matched fish samples. Empirical results identify that normalization of ionizable pharmaceutical residues in aquatic tissues to neutral lipids, polar lipids, or the total protein fraction is inappropriate, though bioaccumulation studies examining influences of internal partitioning (e.g., plasma proteins) are needed.