CESAM and Department of Biology, University of Aveiro, 3810193 Aveiro, Portugal.
Chemosphere. 2010 Mar;79(2):233-7. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.01.011. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Enchytraeids are important inhabitants of a wide variety of soil types and suitable test organisms for environmental risk assessment through the determination of effects on survival and reproduction. In this study, the effect of pesticides with different modes of action is assessed in the standard test species Enchytraeus albidus. Main goals were: (a) to test the toxicity of a range of pesticides to E. albidus in a natural soil (LUFA 2.2), (b) to assess whether avoidance gave a prediction of effects on the survival and reproduction, and (c) to investigate if the organisms' response to different toxics can be grouped into the respective chemical classes. Pesticides selected were the: (1) herbicides: phenmedipham and atrazine; (2) fungicides: carbendazim and pentachlorophenol; and (3) insecticides: dimethoate and lindane. All tested pesticides caused effects in the survival and reproduction of E. albidus and the compounds that showed a higher toxicity were carbendazim, dimethoate and atrazine. The effect concentrations were not chemical class dependent. In general, survival and reproduction showed similar response patterns. Avoidance behaviour showed trends of response similar to these other measured endpoints, but was less sensitive and more variable (data from a previous study). It was not possible to establish a clear correlation between survival, reproduction and avoidance endpoints. From an ecological point of view, avoidance tests are relevant but due to lower sensitivity and higher variability it is recommended that the enchytraeid avoidance test should not be used for risk assessment purposes.
蚯蚓是多种土壤类型中的重要居民，也是用于环境风险评估的合适测试生物，通过测定对生存和繁殖的影响来判断。在这项研究中，评估了不同作用模式的农药对标准测试物种白纹蚓（Enchytraeus albidus）的影响。主要目标是：（a）在天然土壤（LUFA 2.2）中测试一系列农药对 E. albidus 的毒性，（b）评估是否避免行为可以预测对生存和繁殖的影响，以及（c）研究生物体对不同毒物的反应是否可以归为相应的化学类别。选择的农药有：（1）除草剂：苯菌灵和莠去津；（2）杀真菌剂：多菌灵和五氯苯酚；以及（3）杀虫剂：乐果和林丹。所有测试的农药都会对 E. albidus 的生存和繁殖产生影响，而毒性较高的化合物是多菌灵、乐果和莠去津。效应浓度与化学类别无关。一般来说，生存和繁殖表现出相似的反应模式。回避行为表现出与这些其他测量终点相似的反应趋势，但敏感性较低且变异性较高（来自先前研究的数据）。无法在生存、繁殖和回避终点之间建立明确的相关性。从生态学的角度来看，回避测试是相关的，但由于敏感性较低且变异性较高，建议不应将蚯蚓回避测试用于风险评估目的。
