Ref ID : 6842
Willie J.G.M. Peijnenburg, Rob Baerselman, Arthur C. de Groot, Tjalling Jager, Leo Posthuma, and Rens P.M. Van Veen; Relating Environmental Availability of Bioavailability: Soil-Type-Dependent Metal Accumulation in the Oligochaete Eisenia andrei. Ecotoxicol. & Environ.Safety 44:294-310, 1999
Reprint
In File
Notes
Body residures are often better estimates of the amount of a chemical at the sites of toxic action in an organism than ambient soil concentrations, because bioavailability differences among soils are explicitly taken into account in considerations of body residues. Often, however, insufficient attention is paid to the rate and extent at which tissue concentrations respond to soil concentrations and soil characteristics. In this contribution the impact of soil characteristics on the environmental bioavailability of hevay metals for the oligochaete worm Eisenia andrei is reported. Uptake of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in 20 Dutch field soils and in OECD artificial soil was quantified as a function of time. Internal metal concentrations varied less than the corresponding external levels. Metal uptake and elimination were both metal- and species-dependent. Worms typically attained steady-state concentrations rapidly for Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn. Internal concentrations similar to those in the cultivation medium, linearly increasing body concentrations, or steady-state internal concentrations well above those in the cultivation medium were found as As, Cd, and Pb. Multivariate expressions were derived to describe uptake rate constants, steady-state concentrations, and bioaccumulation factors as a function of soil characteristics. Soil acidity is the most important solid-phase characteristic modulating the availability of As, Cd, and Pb. Although additional semimechanistic calculations yielded evidence of porewater-related uptake of Cd and Pb modulated by competition between H+ and metal ions at the active sites of the membranes. The findings for Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn point to additional influences, among which is probably regulation.