Elsevier

Chemosphere

Volume 46, Issue 2, January 2002, Pages 197-200
Chemosphere

Ecotoxicity of nickel to Eisenia fetida, Enchytraeus albidus and Folsomia candida

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0045-6535(01)00112-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Despite growing concern about the potential adverse effects of elevated nickel concentrations in the environment, only a few toxicity data are available for terrestrial invertebrates. Therefore, chronic toxicity of nickel was assessed for Eisenia fetida, Enchytraeus albidus and Folsomia candida, the three invertebrates for which standard test protocols are available. The 21 d EC50 for the cocoon production of E. fetida was 362 (241–508) mg Ni/kg dry wt. For the reproduction of E. albidus, a 42 d EC50 of 275 (217–346) mg Ni/kg dry wt was observed. The 28 d EC50 for the reproduction of F. candida was 476 (347–671) mg Ni/kg dry wt. The obtained toxicity data were very similar to those of related species reported in literature. Although the presented data can be considered as a step forward in the assessment of the potential risks of nickel in terrestrial environments, further research is needed to evaluate the influence of soil parameters on the toxicity of nickel and to quantify the effect of ageing on bioavailability.

Introduction

Apart from being a naturally occurring element, elevated nickel concentrations found in the terrestrial environment may also be caused, for example, by deposition from the burning of fossil fuels, wear of nickel coated surfaces and spreading of sewage sludge and manure (Bak et al., 1997). Because of its widespread use and its potential adverse effects on the environment, nickel is currently receiving increased interest from various national and international regulatory organisations.

Although many studies have been performed on the toxic effects of nickel on terrestrial plants and micro-organisms, little is known about the toxicity of nickel toward terrestrial invertebrates (Scott-Fordsmand, 1997). Even for the test organisms for which a standard test protocol is available, i.e. Folsomia candida (ISO, 1994a), Eisenia fetida (ISO, 1996) and Enchytraeus albidus (OECD, 1999), no toxicity data for nickel are reported in literature. The present study was therefore aimed at examining the chronic toxicity of nickel for these invertebrates in order to provide basic toxicity data required to perform an environmental risk assessment of this metal.

Section snippets

Test organisms

The culture of Enchytraeus albidus Henle 1847 was kindly provided by J. Römbke. The culture substrate of E. albidus consists of artificial soil (OECD, 1984) and animals are fed once a week with ground rolled oats. The culture of Folsomia candida Willem 1902 was obtained from Aquasense B.V. (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). Animals are cultured on a substrate of plaster of Paris and pulverised chemical activated charcoal in a ratio of 8:1 (w:w). Granulated dry yeast (Oetker B.V., Veenendaal, The

Results

For all test species, control mortality was smaller than 10%. At the highest test concentration of 1000 mg Ni/kg dry wt all enchytraeids died and the 21 d LC50 for E. albidus was 510 (456–565) mg Ni/kg dry wt. No mortality occurred at 1000 mg Ni/kg dry wt in the E. fetida tests and for F. candida mortality was smaller than 10% at this exposure concentration.

Reproduction of F. candida ceased at 1000 mg Ni/kg dry wt (Fig. 1(a)) and the 28 d EC50 was 476 (347–671) mg Ni/kg dry wt. The 28 d NOEC

Discussion

A 14 d LC50 of 757 (661–867) mg Ni/kg dry wt was found for E. fetida exposed in standard artificial soil (Neuhauser et al., 1985) whereas no mortality occurred in the present study with the same test substrate at the highest test concentration of 1000 mg Ni/kg dry wt. For Eisenia veneta exposed in LUFA-Speyer 2.2 soil (pH 5.5, total organic carbon 2.3%, clay 5%), a 28 d LC50 of 684 (588–812) mg Ni/kg dry wt was observed (Scott-Fordsmand et al., 1998). For cocoon production, the 28 d NOEC and

Koen Lock obtained his degree in Biology at Ghent University. Presently, he is doing his Ph.D. on the influence of metal toxicity on terrestrial invertebrates. His research is mainly focused on metal bioavailability, mixture toxicity and adaptation to environmental contamination.

References (14)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (90)

  • Predicting the thresholds of metals with limited toxicity data with invertebrates in standard soils using quantitative ion character-activity relationships (QICAR)

    2022, Journal of Hazardous Materials
    Citation Excerpt :

    The models were capable of predicting metal toxicity from metal ion characteristics; the errors between measured and predicted logLC50/EC50 were mostly less than 0.5 orders of magnitude. For instance, for external verification, the observed logEC50 of Ni and Ag to E. albidus in OECD soil were 2.44 (2.34–2.54) and 2.35 (2.21–2.50), respectively (Lock and Janssen, 2002a; Gomes et al., 2013), and corresponding values of predicted logEC50 were 2.59 (2.54–2.65) and 2.15 (2.15–2.16). For natural soils, which were also used for external verification, the results indicated that the errors between the measured and predicted values were mostly less than 0.5 orders of magnitude (Fig. 7), indicating that the QICAR model may be applied to natural soils with similar properties to OECD or LUFA 2.2 soils.

View all citing articles on Scopus

Koen Lock obtained his degree in Biology at Ghent University. Presently, he is doing his Ph.D. on the influence of metal toxicity on terrestrial invertebrates. His research is mainly focused on metal bioavailability, mixture toxicity and adaptation to environmental contamination.

Colin Janssen is professor of Ecotoxicology at Ghent University, Belgium. Since 1987, he and his staff are conducting research in areas such as development and application of alternative toxicity tests, sediment and effluent toxicology, biomarkers and endocrine disruptors, metal toxicity in aquatic and terrestrial systems and environmental risk.

View full text