Development of an alternative artificial soil for earthworm toxicity testing in tropical countries.

M. de Silva, C.A.M. van Gestel

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    The standard soil invertebrate toxicity tests developed by OECD and ISO use an artificial soil as the test substrate, which contains sphagnum peat as a component. This type of peat is not widely available. Investigation of possible alternative substrates using locally available materials therefore is vital for performing such ecotoxicity tests, particularly in the tropics. We studied the suitability of paddy husk (PH), saw-dust (SD), non-composted (NCCP) and composted coco peat (CCP) as a replacement for sphagnum peat. Artificial soil (AS) was prepared by mixing 70% sand and 20% kaolin clay with 10% PH, SD, NCCP or CCP. First, the reproduction potential of the earthworm Eisenia andrei was investigated in modified artificial soil (MAS) using the original OECD AS as the control. The number of juveniles produced in OECD AS, MAS
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)170-174
    JournalApplied Soil Ecology
    Volume43
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

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