Environmental Toxicology: Comparative evaluation of soil toxicity using lettuce seeds and Soil ciliates

摘要

The toxicity of elutriates from 25 putatively contaminated soils was evaluated using the standard seed (Lactuca sativa) germination test and a recently developed soil ciliate (Colpoda inflata) growth test. Correspondence in the identification of presence or absence of toxicity in the 25 soil elutriates between the two tests was 60/100 and concordance in ranking of toxicity between the two test was significant (p＜0.05) using Spearman's rank correlation test (r_s = 0.3831). Stepwise multiple regression analysis of toxicity results against soil elutriate chemistry indicated that pH explained the greatest amount of variation in response in both tests, despite high concentrations of several metals in the elutriates.