I've never worked with contaminated soil but in my knowledge earth worms are commonly used in this field.
Article Soil pH effects on the comparative toxicity of dissolved zin...
Thank you very much for your answer and the article you have attached. I have found also citations very useful for my study!
Colembolans (silverfish) are also commonly used and protocols are available.
You can use plant germination tests (R-Biopharm company, phytotoxkit).
When I was student I worked on Ray Grass (see file attached, p. 51-56).
Earthworms are used since they are known as an efficient accumulator of heavy metals
Ernst G, Zimmermann S, Christie P, Frey B. 2008.Mercury, cadmium and lead concentrations in different ecophysiological groups of earthworms in forest soils. Environ Pollut. 156(3):1304-13. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2008.03.002.
Ines
Both you can use seeds, earthworms or even onion (Allium cepa). The onion has a characteristic which is the cytological changes in the presence of xenobiotic agents, which allows a quick and accurate assessment.
You can,also, take into account the role and use of terrestrial snails as good bioindicator organism for the heavy metal contamination of soil.
Oribatida (oribatid mites) are also interesting organisms for these purposes
Organism which is going to be used as bioindicator should have some features: 1, easy to sample. 2. can be found in many areas(different types of soil). 3. close contact with soil 4. ability to be reared in laboratory conditions 5. Not very difficult identification (Peijnenburg and Vijver, 2009 & Paoletti, 1999) Earthworms, Collembola, Enchytraeids are suitable invertebrates to study.
Hi Ines,
You should consider use animals and plants for a complete analysis of soil ecotoxicity. So, earthworms and plants, such as lettuce seeds (Lactuca sativa) are widely used in germination test and root lenght, common endpoints.
Hi Ines,
You might also consider isopods (Porcellio sp., Porcellionides sp., Oniscus sp. etc.). They are easy to breed, ubiquitous and good heavy metal accumulators.
You know that each individual plant may be useful for any special metal.For ex,rince for metal contamination such as cadmium toxicity such as itai-itai.Earthworm can be considered as useful tools for ecotoxicity.It depends on erea and kind of plants or living animals.
Dear Suzana, i'm very interesting on isopoda.
Do you have a protocol to breed them in lab?
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