Ecotoxicological assessment of organic wastes spread on land: Towards a proposal of a suitable test battery

Effects of sewage sludge application on unfertile tropical soils evaluated by multiple approaches: A field experiment in a commercial Eucalyptus plantation

“…Reported results for ecotoxicity showed that: i) ecotoxicity generally decreases with time; and ii) test with P. subcapitata is more sensitive than with D. magna and L. sativa, at least when performed in longterm field experiments. Indeed, comparisons with previous studies cannot be completely satisfactory because they were realized in laboratory or semi-field (pots) conditions (Selivanovskaya and Latypova, 2003;Andrés and Domene, 2005;Carbonell et al, 2009;Cesar et al, 2012;Huguier et al, 2014). However, in a recent research aiming at assessing the potential ecotoxicity of nine organic wastes, 5 of which belonging to the SS-type, Huguier et al (2014) observed that P. subcapitata were the most sensitive bioassays in a battery of 13 different bioassays with D. magna being the less sensitive ones.…”

“…While it is impracticable to analyze all these contaminants in SS and/or amended soils (Selivanovskaya and Latypova, 2003), additional issues can be (co)responsible for an underestimation of the real environmental risk associated with SS application on pedosphere, such as: i) contaminants into the soil environment, metabolites and byproducts, cannot be fully detected by chemical analyses; ii) soil physico-chemical analysis does not allow an integration of the combined/synergistic effects caused by the presence of multiple chemicals characterizing SS and the corresponding amended soil; iii) total PTE concentrations can overestimate the real environmental risk, as aging processes may significantly reduce bioavailability and, subsequently, biotoxicity of the pollutants. Based on these lines of evidence, ecotoxicological test using bioassays are considered to be an excellent integration (albeit, not a substitution) to soil physico-chemical analysis (Huguier et al, 2014). Since both toxic inorganic and organic contaminants are present and bioavailable in water elutriates obtained from soils, bioassays, when used together with chemical analyses, may detect synergistic and antagonistic effects, as well as provide information about the contaminants bioavailability (Ahlf and Förstner, 2001).…”

“…The selection of appropriate bioassays should be based on: i) high representativeness and sensitiveness to contaminants; ii) rapid life cycles and uniformity in terms of reproduction, growth, and phenotypic features; and iii) similar routes of exposure. Since the use of a single bioassay cannot provide a satisfactory description of soil quality, it is strongly recommended to use a set of tests, composed of different bioassays, in order to provide an appropriate assessment (Selivanovskaya and Latypova, 2003;Huguier et al, 2014). Monitoring soil quality by biological indices is becoming an essential tool to understand the environmental risks involved in SS application (Melo et al, 2018).…”

“…To date, minimal information is available on the assessment of SS environmental risk and the quality of amended soils, by the integrated means of PTE speciation and a battery of bioassays. Moreover, most of the previous studies have been focused on short-term and laboratory or semi-field (pots) evaluation (Selivanovskaya and Latypova, 2003;Andrés and Domene, 2005;Carbonell et al, 2009;Cesar et al, 2012;Huguier et al, 2014), there is still lacking of researches on long-term open field observations. This paper aims to assess, by integrated multiple approaches, combining the use of a battery of bioassays, the availability of PTE in the pedoenvironment, their toxicity in unfertile tropical soils amended with SS using a field experiment in a commercial Eucalyptus plantation.…”

New perspectives for the design of sustainable bioprocesses for phosphorus recovery from waste

“…Therefore, the application of organic waste is regulated by the European Directive 86/278/EEC to prevent adverse effects on the environment and living organisms. However, Huguier et al (2015) state that harmonized ecotoxicological strategies to assess these effects still lack within the existing regulatory framework and that the adverse effects are still underrepresented due to the fact that the eco-toxicological assessment of organic waste is not obliged before application on agricultural soils and the existing assessments are mainly based on physicochemical characteristics which is not sufficient to determine potential eco-toxicological effects. For this reason, the authors propose a test strategy using terrestrial bioassays (mainly plant and earthworm bioassays) using a direct approach which seemed to be more sensitive, relevant and discriminant in comparison to aquatic bioassays to estimate the hazard of using organic waste in agriculture.…”