title: Toxicity screening of soils from different mine areas--a contribution to track the sensitivity and variability of Arthrobacter globiformis assay.
abstract: This study used the Arthrobacter globiformis solid-contact test for assessing the quality of soils collected in areas subjected to past and present mine activities in Europe (uranium mine, Portugal) and North Africa (phosphogypsum pile, Tunisia; iron mine, Morocco). As to discriminate the influence of soils natural variability from the effect of contaminants, toxicity thresholds were derived for this test, based on the dataset of each study area. Furthermore, the test sensitivity and variability was also evaluated. As a result, soils that inhibited A. globiformis dehydrogenase activity above 45% or 50% relatively to the control, were considered to be toxic. Despite the soil metal content determined, the properties of soils seemed to influence dehydrogenase activity. Overall, the contact test provided a coherent outcome comparing to other more time-consuming and effort-demanding ecotoxicological assays. Our results strengthened the feasibility and ecological relevance of this assay, which variability was quite reduced hence suggesting its potential integration within the test battery of tier 1 of soil risk assessment schemes.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia & CESAM (Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar), Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. Electronic address: crmarques@ua.pt.
authors.forename: Catarina R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia & CESAM (Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar), Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Caetano
authors.affiliation: ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, Böttgerstraße 2-14, D-65439 Flörsheim a. M., Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haller
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia & CESAM (Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar), Universidade de Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR/CIMAR), Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas 289, P 4050-123 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH, Böttgerstraße 2-14, D-65439 Flörsheim a. M., Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Römbke
mesh_terms: D001173:Arthrobacter / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D001681:Biological Assay; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D008906:Mining; D009018:Morocco; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000378:metabolism*; D011174:Portugal; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis / Q000633:toxicity*; D014416:Tunisia; D014501:Uranium
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008670:Metals; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D014501:Uranium; D010088:Oxidoreductases
keywords: Dehydrogenase activity; Metals and radionuclides; Risk assessment; Solid-contact assay; Toxicity thresholds