Remobilització dels contaminants orgànics persistents en els ecosistemes polars costaners

• Main Author: Casal Rodríguez, Paulo
• Other Authors: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria Civil i Ambiental, Dachs, Jordi
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya 2018
• Subjects: Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria civil; Ecologia aquàtica; Toxicologia ambiental; Antarc*; Antarctic; Climate change
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2117/125836; http://hdl.handle.net/10803/664188; https://doi.org/10.5821/dissertation-2117-125836

Versió amb diverses seccions retallades, per drets de l'editor Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) constitute an heterogeneous group of chemical substances of great environmental relevance. Its persistence, bioaccumulation, long-range transport potential and negative effects on health and the environment have led to its study and international regulation. As a consequence, there has been a decrease in the primary sources of some of these substances, especially the "legacy" POPs. However, the consequent decrease in its concentrations in the atmospheric compartment favors the re-emission of POPs from soils, ice, snow and water. The Arctic and the Antarctic are remote regions, however they are contaminated by POPs. In the polar regions, persistence is increased due to low temperatures. Atmospheric deposition is also enhanced at low temperatures thanks to the scavenging of chemical compounds present in the atmosphere by the snow deposition and the low air-water and air-soil partition coefficients (a process known as "cold trapping"). In addition, biogeochemical controls such as change in vegetation cover, degradation or biological pump, influence the capture of POPs. All these processes promote the accumulation of POPs in soils, seawater and ice / snow in the polar regions, converting these matrices into reservoirs of "legacy" and emerging POPs in the polar ecosystem. However, the decrease in atmospheric concentrations, together with the increase in temperatures induced by climate change, can reverse the role of these compartments that previously acted as sinks. Furthermore, the glaciers retreat acts as a POPs source from an environmental compartment that is reducing its size on a global scale. This process, known as remobilization, has received increasing attention in the scientific community, as it has an impact on the environmental fate of POPs. Although previous observations confirm the occurrence of this process under certain circumstances, cascading changes in the different environmental compartments and ...