Seasonal and ageing effect on the behaviour of 86 drugs in a full-scale surface treatment wetland: Removal efficiencies and distribution in plants and sediments Maximilien Nuel a,b , Julien Laurent a , Paul Bois a , Dimitri Heintz b , Adrien Wanko a, ⁎ a Icube, UMR 7357, ENGEES, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 2 rue Boussingault, 67000 Strasbourg, France b Plant Imaging and Mass Spectrometry, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes, UPR 2357, CNRS, 12 rue du Général Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg, France HIGHLIGHTS • Data were collected during 2 years of field work on a full-scale SFTW. • Over two years, the SFTW drug removal ability decreased due to the ageing ef- fect. • In summer, drugs are accumulated in the mud and released from it in winter. • Drug compounds were dissimilarly transferred from water to local plants in the SFTW. • The SFTW drug removal efficiency in- creases during warm periods. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 4 August 2017 Received in revised form 7 October 2017 Accepted 7 October 2017 Available online xxxx Editor: D. Barcelo The presence of human drugs in the aquatic environment is partly due to an incomplete and insufficient removal process of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Thus, drug traces are observed at different concentrations in water bodies, sediments and aquatic plants all over the world. At the same time, Surface Flow Treatment Wet- lands (SFTWs) at the outlet of WWTPs are commonly observed in small municipalities as complementary treat- ment. However, little is known regarding the role of SFTWs in the complementary mitigation of emerging contaminants, such as drugs, and the interactions between drugs, plants and sediment throughout the seasons. For that reason, we conducted sampling sessions over a period of two years on a full-scale SFTW downstream of a vertical-flow constructed wetland. At each session, the SFTW influent and effluent, as well as five different plant species and one composite sediment sample, were sampled. We detected more than fifty pharmaceutical compounds in the inflow and outflow water. The compounds most frequently detected were bisoprolol and ketoprofen. We emphasized that the SFTW removal ability was better in the summer than in the winter, due to the impact of weather on physicochemical parameters. Large variations of removal efficiencies were also ob- served when considering all of the detected compounds. Large seasonal variations were also observed for each compound. In addition, the study of the five plants showed their ability to uptake drugs from water and soil to Keywords: Pharmaceutical compounds Seasonality Sediment Plants Removal efficiency Ageing Science of the Total Environment 615 (2018) 1099–1109 Abbreviation: Aut, autumn; BOD, biochemical oxygen demand; COD, chemical oxygen demand; CW, constructed wetland; HLB, hydrophilic lipophilic balance; K d , solid-liquid partition coefficient; K ow , octanol-water partition coefficient; MS/MS, tandem mass spectrometry; NK, Kjeldahl nitrogen; PE, population equivalent; QL, quantification limit; RE, removal efficiencies; SFTW, surface flow treatment wetland; SPE, solid phase extraction; SS, suspended solids; Sum, summer; TP, total phosphorus; TTT, treatment; UPLC, ultra performance liquid chromatography; VFCW, vertical-flow constructed wetland; Win, winter; WWTP, wastewater treatment plant. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: mnuel@engees.eu (M. Nuel), julien.laurent@engees.unistra.fr (J. Laurent), p.bois@unistra.fr (P. Bois), dimitri.heintz@ibmp-cnrs.unistra.fr (D. Heintz), wanko@unistra.fr (A. Wanko). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.061 0048-9697/© 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv