Abstract

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Title:: Review on Trees for Monitoring the Spatio-temporal Distribution and Sources of Persistent Organic Pollutants

Author(s):: WANG Xiao-yan; WANG Xiao-ping; WANG Chuan-fei; GONG Ping; 1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Keywords:: persistent organic pollutant; tree leaves; tree bark; tree ring; adsorption process; influencing mechanism; spatio-temporal distribution; bark-air partitioning coefficient

Abstract:: Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a class of persistent, semi-volatile compounds. Their toxic and bioaccumulative properties can severely impair human health and ecosystem. Trees have been proved to be one of the main reservoirs of POPs and have advantages in POPs monitoring in remote and extremely polluted areas. Tree leaves, barks and rings are good passive sampler of POPs, which can well reflect the spatio-temporal distribution of POPs. The study on trees for monitoring the spatio-temporal distribution and sources of POPs in the past 40 years was briefly reviewed; the adsorption process and mechanism of POPs by tree leaves, barks and rings were discussed; and the application of trees in POPs spatio-temporal monitoring was summarized. The advantage of tree is to monitor the spatio-temporal distribution of POPs in remote area or lowest pollution level. The adsorption of POPs by trees mainly depends on lipids and surface stomata, and is affected by tree characteristics and climatic conditions. However, the mechanism is not clear at present. The pollution level of POPs in the atmosphere can be retrieved by bark-air partitioning coefficient. Compared with lake core records, the tree samples have more accurate historical records. Finally, the shortcomings of current research were analyzed, and the possible future trend was put forward to.