Abstract
This study examined the effects of several factors (metal contents and soil properties) on bacterial bioluminescence activity, seed germination and root/shoot growth of Lactuca in metal-contaminated soils. Each bioassay showed different sensitivities to extractants of soil samples. Average sensitivities of the bioassay were in the following order: root growth > bioluminescence ≥ shoot growth ≥ seed germination. Both total and weak acid-extracted metal contents showed no observable correlations with the activity of any bioassays (r2 < 0.279). However, reasonable correlations were observed between the bioluminescence activity and organics (r2 = 0.7198) as well as between root growth and CEC (r2 = 0.6676). Effects of soils were difficult to generalize since they were dependent on many factors, such as soil properties, metal contents, and the organism used in each test. Nonetheless, these results indicated that a battery of bioassays is an effective strategy for assessment of contaminated soils. Furthermore, specific soil factors were shown to more influence on soil toxicity, depending on the type of bioassay.
Highlights
Metals are common contaminants in many parts of the environment and are responsible for numerous environmental and health problems (Shivhare and Sharma 2012)
In conclusion, no considerable relationships were observed between toxicity and metal contents
Soil organic contents and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were found to be the main soil properties responsible for effects on bioluminescence activity and root growth, respectively. These factors might be directly related to the toxic effects or indirectly by increasing the bioavailability of contaminants. This result indicated that root growth was a more sensitive measure of toxicity of contaminated soil, compared to other tested methods
Summary
Metals are common contaminants in many parts of the environment and are responsible for numerous environmental and health problems (Shivhare and Sharma 2012). Metals are one of the most resistant contaminants affecting ecosystems due to their non-biodegradability and possible toxicity. Metalloid arsenic is one of the most toxic contaminants found in soil, which is produced by many industrial activities (Yi et al 2007; Ravenscroft et al 2009). Soil pollution by metals is evaluated by chemical analysis of the concentrations of metals (Agnieszka et al 2014). Soil monitoring in Korea is based mainly on the maximum permissible chemical contents of two standards: concern standard and countermeasure standard.
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