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Environmental toxicity testing of contaminated soil based on microcalorimetry
Author(s) -
Gruiz K.,
Feigl V.,
Hajdu Cs.,
Tolner M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
environmental toxicology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.813
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1522-7278
pISSN - 1520-4081
DOI - 10.1002/tox.20592
Subject(s) - isothermal microcalorimetry , pollutant , environmental chemistry , contamination , ecotoxicology , environmental science , soil water , toxicity , chemistry , acute toxicity , soil science , ecology , biology , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , enthalpy
Abstract Contaminated site assessment and monitoring requires efficient risk‐management tools including innovative environmental toxicity tests. The first application of microcalorimetry for toxicity testing draw the attention to a possible new tool to increase sensitivity, to eliminate matrix effect and to study effect‐mechanism. A Thermal Activity Monitor (TAM) microcalorimeter was used for measuring the heat production of various test organisms when getting in contact with sterile toxic soils. Well known bacterial ( Azomonas agilis ), animal ( Folsomia candida ) and plant test organisms ( Sinapis alba ) were tested for heat production. The heat response of selected testorganisms was measured in case of metal (Cu and Zn) and organic pollutant (Diesel oil, DBNPA and PCP) contaminated soils. In addition to the quantitative determination of the heat production, the mechanism of the toxic effect can be characterized from the shape of the power‐time curve (slope of the curve, height and time of the maximum). In certain concentration ranges the higher the pollutant concentration of the soil the lower the maximum of the time‐heat curve. At low pollutant concentrations an increased heat production was measured in case of A. agile and 20 and 200 mg Zn kg −1 soil. The microcalorimetric testing was more sensitive in all cases than the traditional test methods. Our results showed that the microcalorimetric test method offers a new and sensitive option in environmental toxicology, both for research and routine testing. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 2010.