Long-Term Field Study on Fate, Transformation, and Vertical Transport of Tetrabromobisphenol A in Soil–Plant Systems

Soil contamination with tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) has been an environmental concern for many years, but in situ studies of the fate and potential risk of TBBPA are lacking. In this study, we investigated the dissipation, metabolism, strong alkali-hydrolytic (SAH-TBBPA), and vertical movement of TBBPA in the field with and without rice-wheat rotation and reed growth for 1225 days. After 342 days of incubation, 21.3% of the TBBPA remained in the surface soil accompanied by obvious leaching to deeper soil layers in the first 92 days. By day 1225, TBBPA was nearly absent from the surface soil layer. A very low amount of SAH-TBBPA (2.31–3.43 mg/kg) was detected during the first 342 days of incubation. In the surface soil, five metabolites were identified that represented four interconnected pathways: oxidative skeletal cleavage, O-methylation, type II ipso-substitution, and reductive debromination. Both rice–wheat rotation and monocultural reed growth accelerated TBBPA removal in the field by stimulating the anaerobic debromination and aerobic O-methylation, especially the oxidative skeletal cleavage of TBBPA in the rhizosphere soil. Though far from comprehensive, our study investigated the natural attenuation and metabolism of TBBPA in situ and the influence by crops to estimate the environmental risk of TBBPA in a field scale.