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Environmental Chemistry: Occurrence, Transformation, and Fate of Chemicals in Natural Systems
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This review pulls together decades of research on how pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, and microplastics move through our air, water, soil, and even our bodies, changing form along the way. The takeaway: these chemicals don't just disappear after use—they travel, transform, and accumulate in ways that can harm wildlife and human health, which is why understanding their journey matters for protecting what we eat, drink, and breathe. Since this is a summary of existing studies rather than new experiments, it highlights gaps in current knowledge and points to where better tracking and cleanup methods are needed most.
Environmental chemistry is an interdisciplinary science that investigates the occurrence, movement, and transformation of chemical substances across natural matrices air, water, soil, and living organisms. This review examines core sub-disciplines, major contaminant classes (including persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, pesticides, and microplastics), pollution sources, chemical fate and transformation pathways, and the resulting impacts on biodiversity and human health. Key analytical methods are also reviewed alongside future research directions for sustainable environmental management.
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