Currently, climate change is a global problem for the human beings and the ecosystem. Climate change changes the phenology of organisms and the spatial distribution, abundance and composition of species. Furthermore, climate change also changes the biomagnification, fate and ecological risk of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Although many scholars have made in-depth research on the ecological response and chemical response of climate change respectively, there is little understanding of the coupling effect between ecological response and chemical response of climate change currently. Individual studies have shown that the climate change will affect the bioaccumulation of POPs from the oligotrophic deep-water lakes and oceans in the Arctic and high-latitude areas in the planktonic food web. Currently, there is little understanding of the effect of climate change on POPs bioaccumulation and biomagnification in areas with middle and low latitudes, especially the understanding lack of the coupling correlation between the climate change and the bioaccumulation and biomagnification of POPs in lower planktonic food web.

Associate researcher Tao Yuqiang, researcher Xue Bin of Nanjing Institute of Geography & Limnology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Wang Zhen, associate professor Lei Guoliang of  Fujian Normal University and Dr. Liu Fei of Fujian Environmental Monitoring Station and others recently clarified the effect and its mechanism of climate change on bioaccumulation and biomagnification of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the planktonic food web of subtropical typical eutrophic shallow lakes (Xuanwu Lake). Research shows: there is biphasic correlation between the bioaccumulation of PAHs from phytoplankton and zooplankton and the temperature; when the temperature is lower than the recruitment temperature of phytoplankton and zooplankton, the PAHs bio-concentration factor increases with rising of the temperature; when the temperature is higher than the recruitment temperature of phytoplankton and zooplankton, the temperature-controlled biomass dilution effect causes that the PAHs bio-concentration factor decreases with rising of the temperature. The research further establishes the climate change-bio-concentration complex model suitable for eutrophic shallow lakes and predicts bioaccumulation and biomagnification of PAHs in the Xuanwu Lake planktonic food web in the 21st century. The positive correlations between bio-concentration factors of PAHs of phytoplankton and zooplankton and the temperature will reduce 18 days and 13 days respectively due to the shifts in plankton phenology (resuscitation in advance and hibernation delay) caused by global warming by 2050~2060. The bio-concentration and biomagnification of PAHs of different properties in the planktonic food web shall respond to the climate change differently. Furthermore, in various seasons, the bio-concentration and biomagnification of the same kind of PAH shall also respond to the climate change differently and the rate of change in winter and spring is relatively large. The bioaccumulation of most PAHs will decrease with global warming but biomagnification from phytoplankton to zooplankton will increase with global warming. This research supplements the understanding of the biogeochemical processes of POPs in subtropical eutrophic shallow lakes under the effect of climate change.

Recently, the research achievements were published in the Environmental Pollution, a mainstream publication in the field of environmental science (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911631394X). The research was funded by the surface project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the outstanding membership project of the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, the surface project of Jiangsu Provincial Natural Science Foundation and the national basic work special fund.