Spatial And Temporal Trends Of Organic Pollutants In Vegetation From Remote And Rural Areas

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 25446
• Main Authors: Bartrons, Mireia, Catalan, Jordi, Penuelas, Josep
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 05-05-2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/2455; 704/172/169/895; Accumulation; Africa; Agriculture - ethics; Air Pollutants - analysis; Americas; Asia; Biosphere; Climate change; Environmental Monitoring; Europe; Food webs; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hydrocarbons, Halogenated - analysis; Hydrocarbons, Halogenated - classification; Hydrocarbons, Halogenated - metabolism; Industry - ethics; International regulations; multidisciplinary; PCB; Persistent organic pollutants; Plants - chemistry; Plants - metabolism; Pollutants; Pollution load; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - analysis; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - classification; Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons - metabolism; Rural areas; Science; Side effects; Spatial distribution; Spatio-Temporal Analysis; Vegetation; Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep25446

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) used in agricultural, industrial and domestic applications are widely distributed and bioaccumulate in food webs, causing adverse effects to the biosphere. A review of published data for 1977–2015 for a wide range of vegetation around the globe indicates an extensive load of pollutants in vegetation. On a global perspective, the accumulation of POPs and PAHs in vegetation depends on the industrialization history across continents and distance to emission sources, beyond organism type and climatic variables. International regulations initially reduced the concentrations of POPs in vegetation in rural areas, but concentrations of HCB, HCHs and DDTs at remote sites did not decrease or even increased over time, pointing to a remobilization of POPs from source areas to remote sites. The concentrations of compounds currently in use, PBDEs and PAHs, are still increasing in vegetation. Differential congener specific accumulation is mostly determined by continent—in accordance to the different regulations of HCHs, PCBs and PBDEs in different countries—and by plant type (PAHs). These results support a concerning general accumulation of toxic pollutants in most ecosystems of the globe that for some compounds is still far from being mitigated in the near future.