Advances in Earth Science ›› 2025, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (8): 831-846. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2025.064

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Emerging Organic Contaminants in the Arctic Terrestrial Environments: Occurrence, Sources and Associated Risks

Xinyi CHEN1,3(), Tengfei CUI2,3, Yiyao PAN1,3, Yifan CHEN1,3, Zihan LI2,3, Qianchen FU2,3, Ruiqiang YANG1,3()   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
    2. School of Environment, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou 310024, China
    3. College of Resource and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2025-05-26 Revised:2025-07-07 Online:2025-08-10 Published:2025-10-20
  • Contact: Ruiqiang YANG
  • Supported by:
    the National Key Research and Development Program of China(2020YFA0608503)

Xinyi CHEN, Tengfei CUI, Yiyao PAN, Yifan CHEN, Zihan LI, Qianchen FU, Ruiqiang YANG. Emerging Organic Contaminants in the Arctic Terrestrial Environments: Occurrence, Sources and Associated Risks[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2025, 40(8): 831-846.

Emerging Organic Contaminants (EOCs) are used extensively in a wide range of consumer products, and are continuously released into the environment or inadvertently emitted as by-products during industrial processes. Owing to their environmental persistence and long-range environmental transport characteristics, EOCs have become ubiquitous and have been widely detected, even in remote regions of the Arctic. Although previous reviews have addressed the occurrence, environmental behavior, and ecological risks of EOCs in the Arctic, they have largely concentrated on marine ecosystems, leaving terrestrial environments comparatively understudied. Compared with the marine environment, the predominant input pathway of EOCs is attributed to long-range atmospheric transport, with significant contributions from secondary emissions. These differences lead to distinct patterns in the occurrence, transport pathways, sources, and environmental impacts of EOCs in terrestrial systems. This review summarizes the occurrence characteristics, temporal trends, and sources of high-concern EOCs, including OPEs, PFASs, NBFRs, and PCNs, in the Arctic terrestrial environment. EOC concentrations in terrestrial compartments of the Arctic remain relatively low, and their temporal dynamics closely reflect historical and ongoing production and usage patterns, emphasizing the complex interplay between local anthropogenic emissions and secondary releases driven by climate change. Through comprehensive analysis across multiple trophic levels—including terrestrial vegetation, freshwater fish, and terrestrial wildlife, as well as human exposure pathways—this review evaluates the profound ecological and health implications of EOC bioaccumulation. Finally, this review outlines future research priorities in light of the current problems and challenges involved in studying EOCs in the Arctic terrestrial environment. Existing studies remain limited to concentration profiles in single media, with only a narrow range of contaminants reported, and lack a systematic understanding of climate-driven re-emission processes and their environmental effects. Future research should therefore strengthen multimedia investigations of contaminant transport and fate, apply non-target screening techniques to identify high-risk contaminants in the Arctic, and place particular emphasis on climate warming-induced re-emissions and their associated ecological and health risks.

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