Abstract：
Steroid hormones (SHs) have attracted mounting attention due to their endocrine-disrupting effects on humans and aquatic organisms. However, the lack of analytical methods and toxicity data for a large number of SHs has limited the effective management of SH contamination in the water-sediment systems. In this study, we developed a highly sensitive analytical method for the simultaneous quantification of 144 SHs to investigate their occurrence, spatial distribution and partitioning in the water and sediment in Taihu Lake. The results showed that the total concentrations of SHs in water and sediment were 366.88-998.23 ng/L (mean: 612.84 ng/L) and 17.46-150.20 ng/g (mean: 63.41 ng/g), respectively. The spatial distribution of SHs in Taihu Lake might be simultaneously influenced by the pollution sources, lake hydrodynamics, and sediment properties. The sediment-water partitioning result implied that 28 SHs were in dynamic equilibrium at the water-water interface. In addition, 22 and 12 SHs tended to spread to water and settle into sediment, respectively. To assess the ecological risk of all SHs, a robust random forest model (R2 = 0.801) was developed to predict the acute toxicity of SHs for which toxicity data were not available from publications. Risk assessment showed that SHs posed a high ecological risk throughout Taihu Lake, with the highest risk in the northwestern areas. Estrone, 17β-estradiol and 17α-ethynylestradiol were the dominant risk contributors and were therefore recommended as the priority SHs in Taihu Lake. This work provided a valuable dataset for Taihu Lake, which would help to provide guidance and suggestions for future studies and be useful for the government to develop the mitigation and management measures.
摘要：
类固醇激素（SHs）由于其对人类和水生生物的内分泌干扰作用而引起了越来越多的关注。然而,缺乏大量SHs的分析方法和毒性数据限制了对水沉积物系统中SH污染的有效管理。在这项研究中,我们开发了一种高灵敏度的分析方法，用于同时定量144SHs以研究其发生，太湖水体和沉积物的空间分布和分区。结果表明，水和沉积物中SHs的总浓度为366.88-998.23ng/L（平均值：612.84ng/L）和17.46-150.20ng/g（平均值：63.41ng/g），分别。太湖SHs的空间分布可能同时受到污染源的影响。湖泊水动力学，和沉积物特性。沉积物-水分配结果表明，28SHs在水-水界面处于动态平衡状态。此外,22和12SHs倾向于扩散到水中并沉淀成沉积物，分别。为了评估所有SHs的生态风险，我们建立了一个稳健的随机森林模型(R2=0.801)来预测SHs的急性毒性,该模型的毒性数据未从出版物中获得.风险评估表明，SHs在整个太湖具有很高的生态风险，西北地区的风险最高。Estrone,17β-雌二醇和17α-乙炔雌二醇是主要的风险因素，因此被推荐为太湖优先SHs。这项工作为太湖提供了一个有价值的数据集，这将有助于为未来的研究提供指导和建议，并有助于政府制定缓解和管理措施。
