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  • Review Article
  • Published:

Persistent organic pollutant cycling in forests

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 2, pages 182–197 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Owing to their toxicity, persistence and capacity for long-range atmospheric transport, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are internationally regulated. However, forests can uptake and sequester POPs from the atmosphere, acting as a filter as they are transported to the poles as part of the so-called grasshopper effect. In this Review, we summarize POP (and polyaromatic hydrocarbon) cycling and distribution in forests, and discuss the environmental factors that impact POP fates. Pollutants are taken up by foliage and transported to the forest floor, where they can be stored in the litter layer or leach further into the soil. Typically, soil organic carbon content, temperature and latitude are the most important factors influencing POP distribution and storage, with boreal and tropical forests accumulating the greatest POP concentrations. Forest fires and deforestation, however, threaten the ability of forests to sequester POPs, with the former also anticipated to increase production of POPs and polyaromatic hydrocarbons through combustion. In order to better estimate the burden of POPs in the environment, greater large-scale and long-term observations are required in all forests, particularly in tropical regions and the Southern Hemisphere.

Key points

  • The forest filter effect describes the uptake of atmospheric persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by foliage and their transport to the forest floor via litterfall, throughfall and the erosion of wax and particles.

  • The global forest can store more than 100 Gg of POPs, delaying their long-range atmospheric transport.

  • POP and polyaromatic hydrocarbon concentrations tend to be higher in European forest soils than on other continents.

  • Deforestation and afforestation caused by human activities and climate change can substantially influence the terrestrial stock of POPs.

  • International strategies and regional and/or global models of POP fate should consider the impacts of climate change and forest fires on POPs cycling.

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Fig. 1: Persistent organic pollutant cycling across scales.
Fig. 2: Persistent organic pollutant and polyaromatic hydrocarbon observations in forests globally.
Fig. 3: Foliar uptake of atmospheric persistent organic pollutants.
Fig. 4: Persistent organic pollutants and polyaromatic hydrocarbons in forest soils.
Fig. 5: Estimation of stocks and soil storage fluxes of persistent organic pollutants and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road (Pan-TPE) (XDA2004050202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41877490 and 41925032), the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP) programme (grant no. 2019QZKK0605) and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS (CAS2017098).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environmental Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, China

    Ping Gong, Hong Xu, Chuanfei Wang, Yan Chen, Liping Guo & Xiaoping Wang

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, China

    Ping Gong, Chuanfei Wang & Xiaoping Wang

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Hong Xu, Yan Chen, Liping Guo & Xiaoping Wang

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  1. Ping Gong
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  3. Chuanfei Wang
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Contributions

P.G. and X.W. wrote and edited the manuscript. P.G., H.X., C.W. and X.W. substantially contributed to the design and discussion of content. P.G., Y.C. and L.G. collected the data for the article. All authors made substantial contributions to the discussion of content.

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Correspondence to Xiaoping Wang.

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Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks Kevin Jones and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution: https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM//env/lrtap/lrtap_h1.html

Stockholm Convention: http://www.pops.int

Supplementary information

Glossary

Bioaccumulate

The amount of accumulated substances in an organism will increase during the lifetime of the organism, owing to a faster rate of uptake than loss.

Forest floor

The organic layers (O-layer) of forest soil, which consists of shed and undecomposed vegetative parts (litter) above the soil surface.

Litterfall

The falling of leaves, twigs, barks or other parts of plants to the ground under the canopy.

Infiltration

The process of water (and substances in water) entering soil from the ground surface.

Gas-phase POPs

POPs usually detected in gas phase as opposed to aerosols; includes HCHs, DDT, HCB and PCBs with less than 4-Cl.

Stomata

The pore on the epidermis of leaves and/or other organs of plants, which is one of the pathways of gas exchange between air and plants.

K OA

Octanol–air partition coefficient, which is the equilibrium ratio of the solute concentration in octanol (mass/volume) to the concentration in air (mass/volume); compounds with a high KOA are more lipophilic and less volatile.

Uptake velocities

The rates of POP uptake by leaves, which is calculated by dividing uptake fluxes by atmospheric concentrations.

Throughfall

The falling of rain drops after the foliage shed and then drop to the ground surface under the canopy.

Dry gaseous deposition

Direct deposition of gaseous pollutants from the air to the surface ground.

K OW

Octanol–water partition coefficient, which is the ratio of the solute concentration in octanol to the concentration in water at equilibrium; a high KOW (or logKOW) means high hydrophobicity or lipotropy.

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Gong, P., Xu, H., Wang, C. et al. Persistent organic pollutant cycling in forests. Nat Rev Earth Environ 2, 182–197 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-00137-5

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