Toxicological benchmarks for potential contaminants of concern for effects on soil and litter invertebrates and heterotrophic process

Technical Report · Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/211164· OSTI ID:211164

Will, M E; Suter, II, G W

An important step in ecological risk assessments is screening the chemicals occur-ring on a site for contaminants of potential concern. Screening may be accomplished by comparing reported ambient concentrations to a set of toxicological benchmarks. Multiple endpoints for assessing risks posed by soil-borne contaminants to organisms directly impacted by them have been established. This report presents benchmarks for soil invertebrates and microbial processes and addresses only chemicals found at United States Department of Energy (DOE) sites. No benchmarks for pesticides are presented. After discussing methods, this report presents the results of the literature review and benchmark derivation for toxicity to earthworms (Sect. 3), heterotrophic microbes and their processes (Sect. 4), and other invertebrates (Sect. 5). The final sections compare the benchmarks to other criteria and background and draw conclusions concerning the utility of the benchmarks.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 211164
• Report Number(s): ES/ER/TM-126/R1; ON: DE96007745
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
05 NUCLEAR FUELS
LAND POLLUTION
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
INVERTEBRATES
FOREST LITTER
ANNELIDS
MICROORGANISMS
TOXICITY
PHENOLS
HALOGENATED AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
CADMIUM
ALUMINIUM
ARSENIC
BARIUM
BORON
COBALT
COPPER
LANTHANUM
FLUORIDES
MERCURY
MANGANESE
MOLYBDENUM
NICKEL
TITANIUM
TUNGSTEN
VANADIUM
ZINC