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Given that polychlorinated biphenyls are so much more abundant in the deep sea trenches than even "In grossly polluted areas, like the Liao River in China" the
by pcrh 10y ago
Given that polychlorinated biphenyls are so much more abundant in the deep sea trenches than even "In grossly polluted areas, like the Liao River in China" the scientist in me suspects that something other than pollution might be at play.
Perhaps deep sea organisms synthesize polychlorinated biphenyls as an adaptive response? (weirder things are known...) Or perhaps the chemical degradation of polychlorinated biphenyls is inhibited by the environment?
- ChuckMcM 10y agoI had that thought as well, however when you look at the differences of the two systems I don't think it holds up well. Consider that every other tested source mentioned has a natural diluting mechanism, whether it is a river receiving runoff rainwater or a tidal area. The trench on the other hand represents a global minimum. Nothing really comes "up" from the trench in quantity so it is in some ways a perfect 'sink'. As such it may be in the process of simply getting more and more concentrated. There chemical inertness would make them extremely long lived under the conditions of the trench.
- eanzenberg 10y agoIt's a sink only for things more dense than the water at that depth. Even the great pacific garbage patch floats.
- brazzledazzle 10y agoI assume it's present in low concentrations in heavy trash or perhaps the flesh of creatures that sink to the bottom after death, slowly building up over time.
- djsumdog 10y agoI'd like some more information on how much this occurs in nature. ..and yes, to start forming accurate correlation and causation arguments, we'd ideally need to know how much was present in organism 20, 30, maybe even 50 ~ 100 years ago.
- pcrh 10y agoSome cores taken from the mud at the bottom of the trench might answer this.