Washout of accumulated testosterone in a watershed

Testosterone is constantly excreted into the environment by both human and animal sources but little is known about how it is transported in the environment. In this study, testosterone was measured in 15 sites in the Upper Jordan Valley after major rain events (238 samplings) for two consecutive rain seasons. The area consists of small farms, cattle pasture, fish ponds with some urban development. One liter samples were extracted on solid phase columns and the eluates measured using specific radioimmunoassay for testosterone and estrogen (estradiol+estrone). The first rain season was the first above average season after a 3-year period of well below average rainfall. It was found in the rain season of 2001/2002, that following a rain sequence of 131 mm/week there was an initial large increase in the concentration of testosterone (maximum 6 ng/l) accompanied by high estrogen (maximum 6 ng/l), which then gradually declined to non-detectable levels (<0.3 ng/l) over a period of 3 months. These peaks originated from runoff from cattle pasture and fish pond effluent. Later peaks consisted only of testosterone that was moderately associated with sulfate (r(2)=0.53, P<0.05) and somewhat associated with total phosphorus (r(2)=0.49, P<0.1) indicating that the origin was leaching from the sulfurous peat soil. In the following rainy season, which had recorded rainfalls, no testosterone peaks above I ng/l were seen. We conclude that the testosterone accumulated in the Upper Jordan Valley was washed out in two stages, first as surface runoff from cattle pasture and then as discharge from the soil. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.