Organic pollutants in deep sea: Occurrence, fate, and ecological implications.

Abstract The deep sea - an oceanic layer below 200 m depths – has important global biogeochemical and nutrient cycling functions. It also receives organic pollutants from anthropogenic sources, which threatens the ecological function of the deep sea. In this Review, critically examined data on the distribution of organic pollutants in the deep sea to outline the role of biogeochemical and geophysical factors on the global distribution and regional chemodynamics of organic pollutants in the deep sea. We found that the contribution of deep water formation to the influx of perfluorinated compounds reached a maximum, following peak emission, faster in young deep waters (  100 years). For example, perfluorinated compounds had low concentrations (