T. Crommentuijn et al., BIOAVAILABILITY AND ECOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF CADMIUM ON FOLSOMIA-CANDIDA(WILLEM) IN AN ARTIFICIAL SOIL SUBSTRATE AS INFLUENCED BY PH AND ORGANIC-MATTER, Agriculture, ecosystems & environment. Applied soil ecology, 5(3), 1997, pp. 261-271
The validity of the pore-water hypothesis was studied by determining t
he bioavailability and toxicity of cadmium to the collembolan species
Folsomia candida, in artificial soils with different pH and different
organic matter content. Cadmium solubility, cadmium accumulation by in
dividuals and effects on survival, growth and population-increase were
determined. Water soluble cadmium concentrations, at comparable total
soil concentrations, increased with decreasing pH and decreasing orga
nic matter content of the soil. No consistent pattern in accumulation
of cadmium by Collembola was found for the different treatments. The v
ariation in LC50 values and EC50 values for growth and population incr
ease, increased when effects were expressed as soluble concentrations
instead of total concentrations in the soil. When expressed as interna
l concentrations the variation decreased except for population increas
e at different pHs. It may, therefore, be concluded that the bioavaila
bility of cadmium to F. candida is not predicted by the water soluble
concentration and that collembolan sensitivity is not only determined
by the internal cadmium concentration but also by differences in soil
characteristics. This hampers a straight-forward prediction of metal t
oxicity using the pore-water hypothesis.