State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Avenue, 210046 Nanjing, China; Institute for Ecopreneurship, School of Life Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Gründenstrasse 40, Muttenz CH-4132, Switzerland.
Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 25;693:133574. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.07.380. Epub 2019 Jul 23.
Large amounts of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) including bisphenol A (BPA) and nonylphenol (NP) are released into the soil due to the application of biosolids. Earthworms are the predominant biomass in many terrestrial ecosystems and profoundly influence the physico-chemical and biological properties of soils. However, information about the effects of earthworm activities on the behaviors of EDCs in soil is still limited. Here, the effects of earthworms on mineralization, degradation, and bound residue formation of BPA and NP were investigated using the C tracer technique. The results showed that earthworms did not affect mineralization of BPA, but significantly inhibited bound residue formation of BPA and changed the size distribution of BPA residues within humic substances. Regarding NP, earthworms significantly inhibited mineralization and bound residue formation, and thus significantly promoted the degradation of NP and NP's metabolites in soil. After nine days of incubation, 75% and 46% of the initially applied C-BPA and C-NP were already present in bound residues, respectively, indicating that the major route of degradation of BPA and NP in soil was bound-residue formation. Among total C-BPA or C-NP residues accumulated in earthworms, bound residues were also predominant (>50%), implying that risk assessment of EDCs based on their concentrations of free form in earthworms might be significantly underestimated. Taken together, our results suggest that fate of EDCs in soil not only depended on their physico-chemical properties but also was intensively affected by earthworm activities, underlining that effects of earthworms should be considered when evaluating environmental behavior and potential risk of EDCs in soil.
大量的内分泌干扰化学物质（EDCs），包括双酚 A（BPA）和壬基酚（NP），由于生物污泥的应用而释放到土壤中。蚯蚓是许多陆地生态系统中的主要生物量，它们深刻地影响着土壤的物理化学和生物学特性。然而，关于蚯蚓活动对土壤中 EDCs 行为影响的信息仍然有限。在这里，使用 C 示踪技术研究了蚯蚓对 BPA 和 NP 的矿化、降解和结合残留形成的影响。结果表明，蚯蚓不会影响 BPA 的矿化，但显著抑制了 BPA 的结合残留形成，并改变了 BPA 残留在腐殖质中的大小分布。关于 NP，蚯蚓显著抑制了矿化和结合残留形成，从而显著促进了土壤中 NP 和 NP 代谢物的降解。在 9 天的孵育期后，最初应用的 C-BPA 和 C-NP 中有 75%和 46%已经存在于结合残留中，这表明 BPA 和 NP 在土壤中的主要降解途径是结合残留形成。在蚯蚓中积累的总 C-BPA 或 C-NP 残留中，结合残留也占主导地位（>50%），这意味着基于自由态 EDCs 浓度在蚯蚓中进行风险评估可能会被严重低估。总的来说，我们的结果表明，EDCs 在土壤中的命运不仅取决于它们的物理化学性质，而且还受到蚯蚓活动的强烈影响，这突出表明在评估 EDCs 在土壤中的环境行为和潜在风险时，应考虑蚯蚓的影响。
