Comparison of heavy-metal uptake by Eisenia foetida with that of other common earthworms. Final technical report

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5575711

Stafford, E A; Edwards, C A

Earthworms have been used in the field to indicate levels of soil pollution and in the laboratory for the ecotoxicological testing of industrial chemicals. An earthworm bioassay procedure developed at the Waterways Experiment Station (Vicksburg, Mississippi) was modified and evaluated as a method of providing information on heavy-metal bioavailability in contaminated soils and sediments from Europe. Eight soils/sediments containing elevated levels of a least one of the elements Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb were selected as well as a control and a reference soil. Six species of earthworm, including the WES bioassay earthworm E. foetida, and five field species were grown in the soils/sediments for periods of 15, 28 or 56 days. Concentrations of the elements Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Cr and Pb present in the earthworm samples (corrected for the presence of soil-derived metals within the earthworm gut) were compared between earthworm species from the same soil and for each earthworm species from a range of metal contaminated soils/sediments. A close linear relationship between metal uptake by E.foetida and the field species of earthworm emerged and good correlation between total (HNO3/HC104) soil Pb and Cd levels and earthworm tissue concentrations and between DTPA extractable soil Cu and Cc levels and earthworm tissue concentrations was observed.

• Research Organization: Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden (UK). Entomology Dept.
• OSTI ID: 5575711
• Report Number(s): AD-A-164779/1/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
560304* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology-- Invertebrates-- (-1987)
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ANIMALS
ANNELIDS
AVAILABILITY
BIOASSAY
CONTAMINATION
ELEMENTS
INVERTEBRATES
METALS
POLLUTION
SEDIMENTS
SOILS
UPTAKE