Environmental toxicity testing of contaminated soil based on microcalorimetry

Abstract

Contaminated site assessment and monitoring requires efficient risk-management tools including innovative environmental toxicity tests. The first application of microcalorimetry for toxicity testing draw the attention to a possible new tool to increase sensitivity, to eliminate matrix effect and to study effect-mechanism. A Thermal Activity Monitor (TAM) microcalorimeter was used for measuring the heat production of various test organisms when getting in contact with sterile toxic soils. Well known bacterial (Azomonas agilis), animal (Folsomia candida) and plant test organisms (Sinapis alba) were tested for heat production. The heat response of selected testorganisms was measured in case of metal (Cu and Zn) and organic pollutant (Diesel oil, DBNPA and PCP) contaminated soils. In addition to the quantitative determination of the heat production, the mechanism of the toxic effect can be characterized from the shape of the power-time curve (slope of the curve, height and time of the maximum). In certain concentration ranges the higher the pollutant concentration of the soil the lower the maximum of the time-heat curve. At low pollutant concentrations an increased heat production was measured in case of A. agile and 20 and 200 mg Zn kg(-1) soil. The microcalorimetric testing was more sensitive in all cases than the traditional test methods. Our results showed that the microcalorimetric test method offers a new and sensitive option in environmental toxicology, both for research and routine testing.

Physico-Chemical and Ecotoxicological Characterizations of Suburban Soils

“…Six different test species were used during the ecotoxicological characterization of the soil samples: Azomonas agilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens (bacteria), Sinapis alba, and Lactuca sativa (plants), Folsomia candida, and Eisenia fetida (soil invertebrates). The two bacterial tests were performed using the methods of previous studies [12], [14]. Plant and invertebrate tests were based on various OECD guidelines [18], [19], [20].…”

Applying Bioassays for Investigation of Soils from Suburban Green Sites

“…Many researchers stated that biological parameters should be taken into account during the evaluation of soil quality, besides the traditional chemical methods [12][13][14][15]. Soil bioassays are efficient methods to estimate the potential danger of different impacts on the soil [15].…”