Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University in Prague, Benátská 2, 12801, Prague, Czech Republic.
Institute of Soil Biology and SoWa Research Infrastructure, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Sádkách 7, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
Exp Appl Acarol. 2020 Sep;82(1):81-93. doi: 10.1007/s10493-020-00536-9. Epub 2020 Aug 18.
Avoidance behavior can be a useful parameter for assessing the ability of organisms to escape from pollutants in their environment. For soil evaluation, a variety of invertebrates is used including the oribatid mite Oppia nitens. Here, we tested the avoidance behavior of O. nitens using a two-chamber test and an escape test with exposures to different cadmium concentrations of up to 800 mg kg dry LUFA 2.2 soil for 2, 4, and 6 days, and up to 7 weeks. With the two-chamber method, the oribatid mites had the choice between clean and polluted soils, whereas they were allowed to escape from a box with polluted soil to clean containers without soil with the escape method. Avoidance of cadmium was observed after 2 days in both tests and the net response of the mites in the two-chamber test increased with increasing cadmium exposure concentrations. Mite responses varied through time, especially with the escape method; with the avoidance behavior becoming more variable and overall non-significant with longer test durations. This is the first study investigating the escape test simultaneously with long-term avoidance of cadmium by O. nitens. This mite species is a promising species for avoidance testing in soil ecotoxicology, but more experiments are needed to evaluate the factors that influence its responses in laboratory tests and the consequences for its distribution in contaminated ecosystems.
回避行为可以作为评估生物从环境中污染物逃逸能力的一个有用参数。在土壤评估中，使用了多种无脊椎动物，包括卵形真螨 Oppia nitens。在这里，我们使用双室测试和逃逸测试来测试 O. nitens 的回避行为，暴露于高达 800mg kg 干 LUFA 2.2 土壤的不同镉浓度下 2、4 和 6 天，以及长达 7 周。在双室法中，卵形真螨可以在清洁土壤和污染土壤之间进行选择，而在逃逸法中，它们可以从装有污染土壤的盒子中逃到没有土壤的清洁容器中。在两种测试中，在第 2 天就观察到了对镉的回避，并且双室测试中螨的净反应随着镉暴露浓度的增加而增加。螨的反应随时间而变化，尤其是在逃逸测试中；随着测试时间的延长，回避行为变得更加多变，总体上不显著。这是第一项研究同时调查 O. nitens 对镉的长期回避和逃逸测试的研究。这种螨类是土壤生态毒理学中回避测试的一种有前途的物种，但需要更多的实验来评估影响其在实验室测试中的反应的因素，以及对其在污染生态系统中的分布的影响。
