Seasonal variation of antibiotics concentration in the aquatic environment: a case study at Jianghan Plain, central China

•25 antibiotics were detected in surface water and groundwater seasonally.•Higher antibiotic residues were observed in groundwater in spring than in winter.•Antibiotic residues in groundwater samples commonly decreased with sampling depth.•Predominant antibiotics differed in surface water and groundwater.•Rivers in the study area were the major sources of antibiotics in groundwater.

25 antibiotics (macrolides, tetracyclines, fluoroquinolones and sulfonamides) were detected in swine wastewater, river water, rivulet water and in groundwater samples from multi-level monitoring boreholes (with sampling ports, respectively, at 10, 25 and 50 m below the land surface) at Jianghan Plain, central China. Except swine wastewater, the antibiotic concentrations in groundwater, river and rivulet water were higher in spring than those in winter. Nineteen antibiotics were detected at 100% frequencies in all kinds of water samples. In groundwater, fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines were the predominant antibiotics and the total concentrations of 25 antibiotics commonly decreased with the aquifer depth. Most groundwater samples collected in spring had high concentrations of norfloxacin, with average values of 65.27 ng·L− 1, 37.28 ng·L− 1 and 46.83 ng·L− 1, respectively, at 10, 25 and 50 m deep boreholes. By contrast, the concentrations of sulfamethazine and erythromycin were rather low in groundwater, but high in surface water. Groundwater samples collected from sites close to rivers or rivulets had much higher contents of antibiotics than those from other sites, indicating that the dominant source of antibiotics in groundwater should be the contaminated rivers or rivulets, rather than the scattered pig and poultry farms in the study area.