Role of low-latitude forests in modulating forest filter effect on a continental scale: Long-term simulation on PCB-153 in Chinese forests Yue Xu a, ⁎, Chongguo Tian b , Luca Nizzetto c,d , Gan Zhang e a State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550002, China b Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China c Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, 0349 Oslo, Norway d RECETOX, Masarik University, Kamenice 753/5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic e State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China HIGHLIGHTS • A level IV fugacity model with a dynamic- forest module was introduced. • Low–latitude forests reduced the overall half-life of PCB-153 in China. • The forest filter effect was achieved by enhanced degradation. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 28 December 2020 Received in revised form 26 February 2021 Accepted 1 March 2021 Available online 8 March 2021 Editor: Jay Gan Keywords: Forest filter effect Low-latitude forests PCB-153 outflow reduction Enhanced degradation Forests are important compartments influencing the environmental fate of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). To illustrate the effect of forests on the regional cycle of POPs, a level IV fugacity fate and transport model coupled with a detailed dynamic-forest module was applied to simulate the long-term variations of PCB-153 in China, where forest coverage accounts for approximately one fifth of land area. In the scenarios with forests, atmo- spheric outflow from China was 69% of that in the scenario without forests due to the enhanced storage in soil, degradation, and leaching. Previous studies regarded high-latitude areas, such as the polar region and boreal for- ests, as environments capable of reducing mobility of PCB-153, and they act as sinks of POPs. This modeling result suggests that tropical and subtropical forests may also play a similar role despite high temperatures favoring vol- atilization. Unlike boreal forest, the low-latitude forests may reduce the overall lifetime of PCB-153 in China due to enhanced degradation in warmer and moist soils of the tropical and subtropical area. Given that approximately half of the global forests are located in tropical and subtropical regions, they can be important environments influencing the global geochemical cycle and distribution of POPs, hence deserving more scientific attention by modeling and empirical studies. © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Science of the Total Environment 778 (2021) 146285 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: xu-yue@mail.gyig.ac.cn (Y. Xu). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146285 0048-9697/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv