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[Display omitted] • A data mining framework for analyzing antibiotics in bays worldwide was developed. • High levels of antibiotics in waters and sediments mainly occurred in Asian bays. • Environmental factors driving antibiotic distribution in bays were identified. • Compositional profiles of antibiotics varied between water and sediment matrices. • Priority antibiotics with potential ecological and health risks were listed. Antibiotics have been widely detected in bay ecosystems, yet little is known regarding their distribution, composition, sources, ecological and human health risks at the regional scale. We developed a systematic framework to mine data from existing publications and compiled an antibiotic concentration-based dataset containing 439 samples from 30 bays, and compared antibiotics across bays and matrices (water, sediment, and biota). Antibiotic concentrations varied considerably between bays, with hotspots occurring in East Asia. The main categories of antibiotics in waters included sulfonamide and macrolide, while tetracycline, quinolone, and macrolide antibiotics were prevalent in sediments. The main sources of antibiotics in bays included sewage treatment plant effluent, domestic sewage, agriculture runoff, and discharges from mariculture activities. Antibiotics with high ecological risks mainly included sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin, clarithromycin, and oxytetracycline. Erythromycin posed a considerable risk to human health, and the human health risks presented by other antibiotics were negligible. Regional variations of concentrations correspond to the uneven geographic consumption of antibiotics and their removal rate during wastewater treatment. Differences in antibiotics' composition between matrices are associated mainly with the physicochemical properties of antibiotics (e.g., molecular structure, solubility, and stability) and the content of total organic carbon, metal ions, chlorophyll a , and clay minerals in the sediments. To reduce the ecological and human health implications, priority should be given to the removal of erythromycin, sulfamethoxazole, oxytetracycline, and clarithromycin, with a special focus on their treatment in the Asian bay areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used statistical approach by coupling redundancy analysis with linear regression analysis, which is useful to understand potential sources of antibiotics in the tide rising and ebbing of surface water in the Yongjiang Estuary, China. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between 29 antibiotics at five sites over four seasons and 13 environmental parameters during the tide rising and ebbing durations. The results found that dissolved organic carbon (DOC), salinity, temperature and chlorophyll a (Chla) were the main factors to impact antibiotics. The concentrations of macrolides were increasing with DOC, suggesting DOC may influence the adsorption capacity of antibiotics. The concentrations of tetracyclines had significant correlation with temperature and Chla during the tide rising period. This study demonstrated a method of exploring the relationship between the concentrations of antibiotics and environmental parameters, which is beneficial to future antibiotics research in estuaries. • Statistical approach applied in the field of antibiotics. • Redundancy analysis with linear regression analysis is used. • Explore responses of estuarial antibiotics to environmental drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]