Anomalous bioaccumulation of lead in the earthworm Eisenoides lonnbergi (Michaelsen)

Lead concentrations in soil organisms are usually well below those in the associated soil and tend to decrease with each higher trophic level in a food chain. Earthworms of the species Eisenoides lonnbergi provide an exception to this observation, accumulating very high concentrations of lead from a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental toxicology and chemistry 2018-03, Vol.37 (3), p.914-919
Main Authors: Beyer, W. Nelson, Codling, Eton E., Rutzke, Michael A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidic soils
Animals
Bioaccumulation
Bioavailability
Calcium
Calcium - metabolism
Calcium influx
Earthworm
Eisenoides
Eisenoides lonnbergi
Environmental Monitoring
Food chains
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Lead
Lead - metabolism
Lead poisoning
Least-Squares Analysis
Magnesium - metabolism
Maryland
Metal accumulation
Metal bioavailability
Oligochaeta
Oligochaeta - metabolism
Public domain
Soil - chemistry
Soil Pollutants - analysis
Soils
Trophic levels
Wildlife
Wildlife conservation
Wildlife refuges
Worms
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Summary:Lead concentrations in soil organisms are usually well below those in the associated soil and tend to decrease with each higher trophic level in a food chain. Earthworms of the species Eisenoides lonnbergi provide an exception to this observation, accumulating very high concentrations of lead from acidic soils. Earthworms belonging to this species were collected from strongly to extremely acidic soils at 16 sites on a wildlife refuge in Maryland, USA. A lead concentration as high as 766 mg/kg, dry weight, was detected in depurated E. lonnbergi collected from soil containing only 17 mg/kg of lead. Concentration factors (ratio of lead concentration in earthworms to lead concentration in soil, dry wt) were highly variable at the sites, from 1.0 to 83. As suggested previously, lead absorption by earthworms is enhanced in low‐calcium soils. The anomalously high concentrations of lead found in E. lonnbergi are more closely correlated with the uptake of calcium from acidic soils than with bioaccessibility of soil lead. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:914–919. Published 2017 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.
ISSN:0730-7268
1552-8618
DOI:10.1002/etc.4031