Ecotoxicology of Pollutants of High Concern

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 16 January 2026 | Viewed by 1267

Special Issue Editors

School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Interests: ecotoxicology; emerging organic pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Pesticide Environmental Assessment and Pollution Control, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences (NIES), Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), Nanjing 210042, China
Interests: ecotoxicology; community toxicology; eDNA and eRNA

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Guest Editor
School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Interests: ecotoxicology; predictive toxicology; toxicogenomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing presence of environmental pollutants of high concern, including persistent organic pollutants (POPs), endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), pharmaceuticals and personal care products, pesticides, microplastics, pathogens, etc., poses significant threats to the health of ecosystems and human. Many of these contaminants exhibit persistence, bioaccumulation potential, and toxicity, yet their long-term ecological impacts and health risks remain poorly understood. Regulatory frameworks often lag behind scientific findings, leaving gaps in risk assessment and management strategies for these hazardous substances.

This Special Issue aims to gather cutting-edge research on the ecotoxicological effects, environmental fate, and health risks associated with pollutants of high concern. We welcome original studies and reviews addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Environmental behavior: Transport, transformation, and fate of pollutants in air, water, soil, and biota.
  • Bioavailability and bioaccumulation: Uptake mechanisms and trophic transfer in ecosystems.
  • Mechanistic toxicology: Molecular, cellular, organism-level, and population-level responses to single or mixed contaminants.
  • Human and ecological risk assessment: Exposure pathways, biomonitoring, epidemiological insights, and ecosystem-level impacts.
  • Advanced methodologies: Innovative approaches (e.g., omics, in silico modeling, and high-throughput assays) for risk assessment.

We encourage submissions from experimental, field, and modeling studies that enhance our understanding of these pollutants and support evidence-based environmental policies.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Rui Zhang
Dr. Yuwei Xie
Dr. Pu Xia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • persistent organic pollutants
  • emerging contaminants
  • environmental behavior
  • mechanistic toxicology
  • ecotoxicology
  • environmental monitoring and biomonitoring
  • environmental risk assessment
  • human risk assessment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1904 KB  
Article
Occurrence, Dominance, and Combined Use of Antibiotics in Aquaculture Ponds
by Emmanuel Bob Samuel Simbo, Zhiyuan Ma, Longxiang Fang, Sampa Morgan, Sahr Lamin Sumana, Meshack Chubwa Maguru, Mbonyiwe Chakanga, Haggai Gondwe, Alpha Thaimu Bundu, Liping Qiu, Chao Song and Shunlong Meng
Toxics 2025, 13(10), 892; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics13100892 - 18 Oct 2025
Viewed by 826
Abstract
Antibiotic use in aquaculture has become widespread to sustain production and control bacterial diseases, but it poses significant ecological and human health risks due to residue accumulation and resistance development. This study investigated the occurrence, dominance, and combined use of sulfonamide and fluoroquinolone [...] Read more.
Antibiotic use in aquaculture has become widespread to sustain production and control bacterial diseases, but it poses significant ecological and human health risks due to residue accumulation and resistance development. This study investigated the occurrence, dominance, and combined use of sulfonamide and fluoroquinolone antibiotics in freshwater fish aquaculture ponds around Wuxi, China. Here, the term aquaculture refers specifically to the controlled farming of freshwater fish species such as carp and crucian carp in managed pond systems. A total of 80 water samples (collected exclusively from pond waters) were obtained from 40 ponds during the high intensity rearing and harvest stage of fish. Residues of enrofloxacin and sulfonamide antibiotics were analyzed using a validated LC–MS/MS method with detection limits in the low nanogram-per-liter range. Results revealed that antibiotics were ubiquitous in pond waters, with enrofloxacin emerging as the dominant compound in August, reaching concentrations of up to 2.36 µg/L. By October, sulfonamides, particularly sulfamethoxazole and sulfadiazine, became more prevalent, with a maximum sulfadiazine concentration exceeding 4 µg/L. Multivariate analyses demonstrated a clear seasonal shift in antibiotic profiles, while correlation analyses indicated limited combined use in summer but notable co-occurrence of sulfonamides in autumn. These findings underscore that antibiotic application patterns in aquaculture are strongly linked to production stages, with potential consequences for environmental safety, resistance development, and food security. Effective monitoring, stricter regulation, and alternative disease management strategies are urgently required to mitigate risks and promote sustainable aquaculture practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ecotoxicology of Pollutants of High Concern)
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