METAL ACCUMULATION STRATEGIES IN SAPROPHAGOUS AND PHYTOPHAGOUS SOIL INVERTEBRATES - A QUANTITATIVE COMPARISON

To quantitatively reveal accumulation patterns of environmentally rele vant heavy metals in selected saprophagous or phytophagous soil invert ebrates, adults of the species Porcellio scaber (Isopoda), Tetrodontop hora bielanensis (Collembola), Julus scandinavius (Diplopoda), and Der oceras reticulatum (Gastropoda) were exposed to lead-, cadmium-, or zi nc-contaminated food and soil for three weeks. The heavy metal concent rations in the food, the substrate, and the bodies of the invertebrate s were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS). The inve stigated species were found to differ in their metal accumulation stra tegies, which is interpreted as a consequence of different detoxificat ion mechanisms.