  We demonstrate that at long times the rate of passive scalar decay in a
turbulent, or simply chaotic, flow is dominated by regions (in real space or in
inverse space) where mixing is less efficient. We examine two situations. The
first is of a spatially homogeneous stationary turbulent flow with both viscous
and inertial scales present. It is shown that at large times scalar
fluctuations decay algebraically in time at all spatial scales (particularly in
the viscous range, where the velocity is smooth). The second example explains
chaotic stationary flow in a disk/pipe. The boundary region of the flow
controls the long-time decay, which is algebraic at some transient times, but
becomes exponential, with the decay rate dependent on the scalar diffusion
coefficient, at longer times.
