Bioindicator Systems for Soil Pollution

N.M. V AN STRAALEN** and D.A. KRIVOLUTSKY* **Department of Ecology and Ecotoxicology VrUe Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands *Institute of Evolutionary Animal Morphology and Ecology Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospekt 33 117071 Moscow, Russian Federation Many industrialized and developing countries are faced with the assessment of potential risks associated with contaminated land. A variety of human activities, including municipal waste disposal, industrial emissions, military testing, and agricultural practices have left their impacts on soils in the form of elevated, and locally high concentrations of toxicants. In several cases sources have not yet been stopped and contamination continues. Decisions on the management of contaminated sites require information on the extent to which toxicants adversely affect the soil ecosystem. For this purpose, it is often insufficient to extrapolate from abiotic sampling. The detection of a toxicant in the abiotic environment usually does not allow a very strong conclusion on the potential hazards.

Klappentext

How is one to make good, cost-effective decisions about the management or remediation of polluted soils? The application of bioindication techniques may provide information on the availability of contaminants, and may thus help to support management decisions. In addition, the repeated application of bioindicators may reveal temporal trends and the spatial extent of the ecological effects of contaminants. This book presents a set of new approaches to the development of bioindication systems for the soil environment. The emphasis is on the use of invertebrates, as part of the soil life-support system. One of the book's main messages is that bioindicators should integrate information derived from invertebrate communities, micro- organisms and soil processes. It discusses general ecotoxicological approaches, community and systems approaches, as well as various case studies in Eastern and Western Europe and the USA. Audience: All those involved with management decisions on polluted soils, as well as academics working on the further development of bioindicator systems.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- Ecotoxicological approaches.- 2. Critical body concentrations: their use in bioindication.- 3. Constraints in the use of bioindicators and biomarkers in ecotoxicology.- 4. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soil detritivores.- 5. Sublethal toxicity tests for long-lived iteroparous invertebrates: searching for a solution.- 6. Possible application of fuzzy system simulation models for biomonitoring soil pollution in urban areas.- Community and systems approaches.- 7. Essential criteria for selecting bioindicator species, processes, or systems to assess the environmental impact of chemicals on soil ecosystems.- 8. The maturity index as an instrument for risk assessment of soil pollution.- 9. The use of macro-invertebrates for population and community monitoring of metal contamination - indicator taxa, effect parameters and the need for a soil invertebrate prediction and classification scheme (SIVPACS).- 10. The problem of scale in bioindication of soil contamination.- 11. Biodiversity indicators for sustainability. Assessment of rural landscapes.- Soil invertebrates in bioindication systems.- 12. An integrated bioindication system applied to soil pollution assessments: from earthworms to ecosystems.- 13. Insects in bioindication of soil pollution.- 14. Soil spiders and bioindication.- 15. Soil animals and bioindication.- Bioindicator systems in practice.- 16. Soil fauna as bioindicator of radioactive pollution.- 17. A hierarchical approach to ecological assessment of contaminated soils at Aberdeen Proving Ground, USA.- 18. Bioprocessing of organic wastes: Safety for landspreading them.- 19. Ecotoxicological bioindication: PAH, PCB and heavy metals studied in the natural resource monitoring programme of Berlin (Germany).- 20. Heavy metals in Russian wetlands.- Recommendations.- List of contributors.