Once hailed as an effective insecticide, but later loathed for its toxic environmental effects, DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was banned in many countries in the 1970s. Now, a modelling study suggests that, in parts of the ocean, it may have accumulated in large enough amounts to oversaturate the surface waters and be re-emitted into the atmosphere.
Irene Stemmler and Gerhard Lammel, both now at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, used a three-dimensional atmosphere–ocean global circulation model that included two-dimensional representations of vegetation surfaces and soils to track the movement of DDT. Their analysis revealed that the western North Atlantic ocean has been re-emitting DDT for more than three decades, longer than most other regions. The distribution of the pesticide has been creeping northwards, despite the DDT bans in the northern high and mid-latitudes. The authors caution that DDT-monitoring data have not been gathered for long enough to test the model.
For a longer story on this research, see http://go.nature.com/ZVw7VN
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Biogeochemistry: DDT in the ocean. Nature 463, 138–139 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/463138f
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/463138f
