Chloride, which comes into the forest ecosystrem largely from the sea as aerosol , cause chlorination of soil organic matter. Our study of chlorination of organic matter in the fermentation horizont of forest soil using radioisotope 35Cl show that microbial chlorinaton prevails over abiotic, chlorination of soil organic matter being enzymatically mediated and proportional to chloride content and time.
Long-term (>100 days) chlorination leads to more stable chlorinated substance and volatile organochlorines are formed.