Lecture series in Ecology and Environmental Research WS 2011/12

Environmental fate of organic contaminants in the marine environment - the same story as in rivers and lakes?

- eingeladen von Stefan Peiffer -

Occurrence and fate of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment have now been studied for several decades. Among other findings, this research showed that POPs are ubiquitous in the aquatic environment. Marine systems receive their POP burden both through point and diffuse sources, and even remote regions without any direct sources can be substantially contaminated through long-range transport of POPs.

In comparison to freshwater systems, the characteristics of the marine environment are substantially different. These differences are, for example, related to much larger temporal and spatial scales, to peculiar physical aspects, and to more extended food-webs.

In this presentation, a number of examples for the occurrence and fate of persistent organic pollutants in marine systems will be presented and discussed. Some key features of the marine environment with relevance for the environmental fate of organic micropollutants will be summarized and compared to processes in freshwater systems.

• Announcement (pdf)