A Cu tolerant population of the earthworm Dendrodrilus rubidus (Savigny, 1862) at Coniston Copper Mines, Cumbria, UK

Metal bioavailability to Eisenia fetida through copper mine dwelling animal and plant litter, a new challenge on contaminated environment remediation

“…A study in the UK on copper tolerant population of worms by Arnold et al, 2008 found that the worms can tolerate a high Cu concentration in soils. The question is to find whether copper gets deposited in the tissue of worms if it can tolerate toxicity.…”

“…Moreover the control samples of E. camaldulensis and A. pycnantha leaf litter are also omitted due to lack of information on threshold level of metal accumulation and low detection by instruments in earlier studies (Nirola et al, 2015). To test the level of metal bioavailability, ecotoxicology experiment using earthworms as ideal bio-indicators of soil toxicity was conducted (Gish and Christensen, 1973;Udovic and Lestan, 2007;Suthar et al, 2008;Arnold et al, 2008;Andre et al, 2010). Eisenia fetida is a popular and appropriate species that is used here for microcosm study (Suthar et al, 2008;Kim et al, 2016).…”

Incorporation of lead into calcium carbonate granules secreted by earthworms living in lead contaminated soils

“…Of particular interest to us is the effect that earthworms have on metal mobility in soils (Sizmur and Hodson, 2009). Given the presence of earthworms in metal contaminated soil (Spurgeon and Hopkin, 1999;Arnold et al, 2008;Andre et al, 2009), the low solubility of metal carbonates in circumneutral and basic soils (Starck et al, 1989) and the reduced toxicity of metals present as carbonates compared to metals present as more soluble metal salts in toxicity tests (e.g. Arnold et al, 2003;Davies et al, 2003) it is possible that the mobility and availability of metals at contaminated sites may be impacted by incorporation of those metals into earthworm secreted carbonate granules.…”

Cloning, characterization, and expression of cadmium-induced metallothionein-2 gene from earthworm Pheretima aspergillum (E. Perrier)

“…A number of studies have shown that earthworms can survive in heavy metal-contaminated sites (Langdon et al, 1999(Langdon et al, , 2001Reinecke, 1999;Reid and Watson, 2005;Arnold et al, 2008) and accumulate heavy metals (van Gestel et al, 1993;Darling and Thomas, 2005;Hobbelen et al, 2006) including Cd, which is a powerful toxic agent to living organisms. The mechanisms involved in heavy metal tolerance may be explained by the presence of metalbinding proteins, which have been proven for many species and probably play a critical role in storing a substantial body burden of metals (Dallinger, 1996;Fraysse et al, 2006).…”