Advances in environmental behaviors and effects of dissolved organic matter in aquatic ecosystems

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a group of compounds that have complex chemical structures and multiple interactions with their surrounding materials. More than one trillion tons of DOM are stocked in the world’s aquatic ecosystems. DOM is a very important part of aquatic ecosystem productivity and plays a crucial role in global carbon cycling. DOM has rich environmental behaviors and effects such as influencing the bioavailability of contaminants, serving as an important inducer of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and protecting aquatic organisms from the harm of dangerous ultraviolet radiation. There have been many systematic studies on the composition, structure, and sources of DOM because such studies are much easier to conduct than studies on the environmental behaviors and effects of DOM. Due to many factors, the research systems of DOM’s environmental behaviors and effects are still being developed and have become a hotspot of environmental science. This review paper focuses on some critical progress, problems, and trends of DOM’s environmental behaviors and effects in aquatic ecosystems, including mutual exchange mechanisms between DOM and particulate organic matter (POM) with influencing factors, photochemical behaviors of DOM especially inducing ROS, binding interactions between DOM and anthropogenic organic contaminants (AOC), interactions between DOM and microorganisms, effects of DOM on pollutants’ bioavailability, ecotoxicity, and ecological risks. Hopefully, this paper will contribute to a more systematic understanding of the DOM environmental behaviors and effects and to promoting further relevant studies.