Biotoxicity Assessment of Pyrene in Soil Using a Battery of Biological Assays

• Published in: Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology Vol. 63; no. 4; pp. 503 - 512
• Main Authors: Khan, Muhammad Imran, Cheema, Sardar Alam, Tang, Xianjin, Shen, Chaofeng, Sahi, Shahbaz Talib, Jabbar, Abdul, Park, Joonhong, Chen, Yingxu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01-11-2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aliivibrio fischeri - drug effects; Aliivibrio fischeri - growth & development; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Assaying; Bacteria; Bioassay; Bioassays; Bioavailability; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Assay - methods; Brassica - drug effects; Brassica - growth & development; Chemicals; Comet Assay - methods; Damage; Damage detection; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA damage; DNA Damage - drug effects; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Genotoxicity; Germination - drug effects; Hydrocarbons; Indicator organisms; Inhibition; Loam soils; Luminescence; Microorganisms; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Mortality; Oligochaeta - drug effects; Oligochaeta - growth & development; Organic contaminants; Pollutants; Pollution; Pyrene; Pyrenes; Pyrenes - toxicity; Risk assessment; Seeds - drug effects; Seeds - growth & development; Soil (material); Soil - analysis; Soil - chemistry; Soil contamination; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soil pollution; Soil Science & Conservation; Studies; Test organisms; Toxicity; Toxicity Tests, Acute; Toxicity Tests, Subchronic; Trophic levels; Worms; Root Elongation; Pyrene; PAHs; Comet Assay; Chinese Cabbage; Persistent organic pollutant; Soils; Pollution; Ecotoxicology; Hydrocarbon; Toxicity; Environment; Polycyclic aromatic compound; Organic compounds
• ISSN: 0090-4341; 1432-0703
• DOI: 10.1007/s00244-012-9793-0

A test battery, composed of a range of biological assays, was applied to evaluate the ecological health of soil aged for 69 days and spiked with a range of pyrene levels (1.04, 8.99, 41.5, 72.6, 136, and 399 μg g
−1
dry soil; Soxhlet-extracted concentrations after 69 days of aging). Chinese cabbage (
Brassica rapa
), earthworm (
Eisenia fetida
), and bacteria (
Vibrio fischeri
) were used as test organisms to represent different trophic levels. Among the acute ecotoxicity bioassays used, the
V. fischeri
luminescence inhibition assay was the most sensitive indicator of pyrene toxicity. We observed >8 % light inhibition at the lowest concentration (1.04 μg g
−1
) pyrene, and this inhibition increased to 60 % at 72.6 μg g
−1
. The sensitivity ranking for toxicity of the pyrene-contaminated soil in the present study was in the following decreasing order: root elongation of Chinese cabbage < earthworm mortality (14 days) < earthworm mortality (28 days) < luminescence inhibition (15 min) < luminescence inhibition (5 min). In addition, genotoxic effects of pyrene were also evaluated by using comet assay in
E. fetida
. The strong relationship between DNA damage and soil pyrene levels showed that comet assay is suitable for testing the genotoxicity of pyrene-polluted soil. In addition, tail moment was well correlated with soil pyrene levels (
r
2
 = 0.99). Thus, tail moment may be the most informative DNA-damage parameter representing the results of comet assay. Based on these results, the earthworm DNA damage assay and Microtox test are rapid and sensitive bioassays and can be used to assess the risk of soil with low to high levels of hydrocarbon pollution. Furthermore, an analysis of the toxic effects at several trophic levels is essential for a more comprehensive understanding of the damage caused by highly contaminated soil.