Dry-to-wet fluctuation of moisture contents enhanced the mineralization of chloramphenicol antibiotic

•Low soil water content promoted abiotic hydrolysis of CAP.•Soil with high cry-Fe/Al and low SOM guaranteed high abiotic hydrolysis activity.•Dry-to-wet fluctuation of soil water content enhanced CAP mineralization.•Soil water management facilitates removal of antibiotics from wastewater and soils. Due to livestock wastewater irrigation, soil is becoming one of the major sinks of antibiotics in the environment. Recently, it is getting recognized that a variety of minerals under low moisture conditions can induce strong catalytic hydrolysis to antibiotics. However, the relative importance and implication of soil water content (WC) for natural attenuation of soil residual antibiotics has not been well recognized. In order to explore the optimal moisture levels and the key soil properties dominating for the high catalytic hydrolysis activities of soils, this study collected 16 representative soil samples across China, and assessed their performances to degrade chloramphenicol (CAP) under different moisture levels. The results showed that the soils with low organic matter contents (< 20 g/kg) and high amounts of crystalline Fe/Al were particularly effective in catalyzing CAP hydrolysis when exposed to low WC (< 6%, wt/wt), leading to CAP hydrolysis half-lives of