The toxicology of climate change: environmental contaminants in a warming world.

By P. Noyes, Matthew McElwee, Hilary Miller, Bryan W Clark, Lindsey A Van Tiem, Kia C Walcott, Kyle N. Erwin, Edward D. Levin. Environment International, 2009

1,092 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Climate change induced by anthropogenic warming of the earth's atmosphere is a daunting problem. This review examines one of the consequences of climate change that has only recently attracted attention: namely, the effects of climate change on the environmental distribution and toxicity of chemical pollutants. A review was undertaken of the scientific literature (original research articles, reviews, government and intergovernmental reports) focusing on the interactions of toxicants with the environmental parameters, temperature, precipitation, and salinity, as altered by climate change. Three broad classes of chemical toxicants of global significance were the focus: air pollutants, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including some organochlorine pesticides, and other classes of pesticides. Generally, increases in temperature will enhance the toxicity of contaminants and increase concentrations of tropospheric ozone regionally, but will also likely increase rates of chemical degradation. While further research is needed, climate change coupled with air pollutant exposures may have potentially serious adverse consequences for human health in urban and polluted regions. Climate change producing alterations in: food webs, lipid dynamics, ice and snow melt, and organic carbon cycling could result in increased POP levels in water, soil, and biota. There is also compelling evidence that increasing temperatures could be deleterious to pollutant-exposed wildlife. For example, elevated water temperatures may alter the biotransformation of contaminants to more bioactive metabolites and impair homeostasis. The complex interactions between climate change and pollutants may be particularly problematic for species living at the edge of their physiological tolerance range where acclimation capacity may be limited. In addition to temperature increases, regional precipitation patterns are projected to be altered with climate change. Regions subject to decreases in precipitation may experience enhanced volatilization of POPs and pesticides to the atmosphere. Reduced precipitation will also increase air pollution in urbanized regions resulting in negative health effects, which may be exacerbated by temperature increases. Regions subject to increased precipitation will have lower levels of air pollution, but will likely experience enhanced surface deposition of airborne POPs and increased run-off of pesticides. Moreover, increases in the intensity and frequency of storm events linked to climate change could lead to more severe episodes of chemical contamination of water bodies and surrounding watersheds. Changes in salinity may affect aquatic organisms as an independent stressor as well as by altering the bioavailability and in some instances increasing the toxicity of chemicals. A paramount issue will be to identify species and populations especially vulnerable to climate-pollutant interactions, in the context of the many other physical, chemical, and biological stressors that will be altered with climate change. Moreover, it will be important to predict tipping points that might trigger or accelerate synergistic interactions between climate change and contaminant exposures.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4069ca2174c639d186a510591d62dec4c4b057d0

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Citations in the corpus

Will climate change reduce the effects of a pesticide on amphibians?: partitioning effects on exposure and susceptibility to contaminants (2011, background): “…is considered the second greatest threat to aquatic and amphibious species behind habitat loss in the United States (Wilcove & Master, 2005), and wildlife is likely to simultaneously encounter pollution and climate change more regularly in the future (Vitousek et al., 1997; Noyes et al., 2009).”
Interactions between effects of environmental chemicals and natural stressors: a review. (2010, background): “Lastly, toxicants may interfere with the physiology of an organism, rendering this organism less tolerant to environmental stress caused by extreme levels of natural stressors (Højer et al., 2001; Noyes et al., 2009).”
Looking forward through the past: identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology (2014, neutral): “However, an additional challenge identi ﬁ ed by palaeoecologists concerned the threats posed by new and emerging pollutants, especially when interactions with other stressors such as climate change were considered (Noyes et al. 2009; Murray, Thomas & Bodour 2010) [Q7].”
Underground thermal energy storage: environmental risks and policy developments in the Netherlands and EU (2011, background): “Increased groundwater temperature may mobilize otherwise immobile contaminants by increasing solubility and reducing sorption (Knauss and Copenhaver 1995, ten Hulscher and Cornelissen 1996, Knauss et al. 2000) or may increase contaminant toxicity (Noyes et al. 2009).”
Global Water Pollution and Human Health (2010, background): “Therefore, the influence of climate change on the distribution and the effects of POPs in the environment needs to be addressed (53).”
A review of multi-criteria decision-making applications to solve energy management problems: Two decades from 1995 to 2015 (2017, background): “Distribution of selected studies based on climate change Climate change is considered one of the primary environmental phenomena that has captured the world’s attention in recent decades [209].”
The added complications of climate change: understanding and managing biodiversity and ecosystems (2013, neutral): “It also alters temperature, pH, dilution rates, salinity, and other environmental conditions that modify the availability of pollutants, the exposure and sensitivity of species to pollutants, and the transport patterns, uptake, and toxicity of pollutants (Noyes et al. 2009).”
Agriculture Development, Pesticide Application and Its Impact on the Environment (2021, background): “For example, on average, elevated carbon dioxide results in increased rice yields [100].”
Impacts of changing sea-ice conditions on Arctic marine mammals (2011, background): “Arctic marine mammals might also face increased risks from contaminants (AMAP 2003; MacDonald et al. 2005; Noyes et al. 2009).”