Polluted Ecosystems: How Global Climate Change Drives Pollutant Dynamics in Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecosystems

Global climate change is reshaping the presence, occurrence, fate, and transport of pollutants, amplifying and altering their impact on both ecosystems and human health. The dynamics of pollutants, from heavy metals to emerging contaminants, are being altered by the consequences of global climate change such as rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and wildfires.

This Research Topic explores the critical intersection between global climate change and pollutant behavior in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Specifically, it examines how climate-driven changes influence the distribution, transformation, degradation, bioavailability, and accumulation of pollutants in diverse environments.

We welcome original research articles, mini-reviews, reviews, systematic reviews, and short communications that contribute to this research theme. Submissions may include laboratory experiments, pilot-scale, full-scale, fieldwork, and modeling studies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Occurrence, transport, and fate of pollutants in changing environments

2. Assessment of potential environmental health impacts using toxicological studies

3. Examining how climate change affects the movement, transformation, and persistence of pollutants across ecosystems

4. Impact of climate change-driven salinity on biogeochemical processes affecting the cycling and distribution of nutrients and pollutants in coastal and terrestrial ecosystems

5. Effects of rising ocean temperatures on marine contamination

6. Interaction between soil health and pollutant retention in terrestrial ecosystems

7. Catastrophic natural events and their links to pollutant dynamics

8. Innovative approaches to managing pollutants and mitigating climate change impacts

9. Strategies to reduce pollutant loads and enhance ecosystem resilience to climate change

10. Assessing the vulnerability of different ecosystems to pollutants under varying climate conditions

Keywords: climate change, pollutant dynamics, aquatic ecosystems, terrestrial ecosystems, pollutant transport, pollutant fate

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.