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The effects of equitoxic mixtures of CuCl2, ZnCl2, and CdCl2 on the filtration rate of the freshwater mussel Dreissena polymorpha were determined. The amounts of added metals were expressed in toxic units, and a range of toxic units was tested. Cu + Zn was less than concentration additive, Zn + Cd was concentration additive, and Cu + Cd was more than concentration additive in their effects on the filtration rate of Dreissena polymorpha. An equitoxic mixture of all three metals was concentration additive. The effect of a mixture could not be predicted from the effects of the single metals. The concentrations at which Cu and Cd contributed to the toxicity of a mixture of Cu + Zn + Cd were at or below the NOECs for these metals, determined in single‐metal toxicity tests. At low but elevated Cu and Zn concentrations in water, no accumulation of these metals in the mussels took place; Cd, on the contrary, was accumulated at all Cd concentrations in the water.

The soil-living springtail Folsomia candida is frequently used in reproduction bioassays to assess soil contamination. Alternatively, the response of genes to contamination is assessed. In this study the expression of F. candida's gene encoding the deduced metallothionein-like motif containing protein (MTC) was assessed, using quantitative PCR, in response to six different metals, each at two concentrations in soil. The expression of mtc was induced after exposure to all metals, except for one chromium concentration. Exposure to soil originating from metal-contaminated field sites also induced mtc, while the expression did not change in response to a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Since this transcript is induced by most of the tested metals, it may potentially be a good indicator of metal contamination. The presented gene expression assay might become a useful tool to screen potentially polluted sites, in order to identify the ones that need further ecotoxicological investigation. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sudden temperature changes in soil can induce stress in soil-dwelling invertebrates. Hyperthermic conditions have an impact on gene expression as one of the first steps. We use a transcriptomics approach using microarrays to identify expression changes in response to heat in the springtail Folsomia candida. An elevation of temperature (Δ 10 °C) altered the expression of 142 genes (116 up-, 26 down-regulated). Many up-regulated genes encoded heat shock proteins, enzymes involved in ATP synthesis, oxidative stress responsive enzymes and anion-transporting ATPases. Down-regulated were glycoside hydrolases, involved in catalysis of disaccharides. The small number of altered transcripts suggest a mild response to heat in this soil invertebrate, but further research is needed to confirm this. This study presents candidate genes for future functional studies concerning thermal stress in soil-dwelling invertebrates. © 2010 The Royal Entomological Society.

Heterogeneity in eukaryotic and bacteria community structure in surface and subsurface sediment samples downgradient of the Banisveld landfill (The Netherlands) was studied using a culturing-independent molecular approach. Along a transect covering the part of the aquifer most polluted by landfill leachate, sediment was sampled at 1-m depth intervals, until a depth of 5.5 m, at four distances from the landfill. Two drillings were placed in a nearby clean area as a reference. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis banding patterns revealed high bacterial and eukaryotic diversity and complex community structures. Bacteria and eukaryotic community profiles in polluted samples grouped different from those in clean samples. Bacteria community profiles in surface samples clustered together and separately from subsurface community profiles. Subsurface bacteria profiles clustered in a location-specific manner. Eukaryotic community structure did not significantly relate to distance from the landfill or depth. No significant spatial autocorrelation of bacteria or eukaryotic communities was observed over 1-m depth intervals per sampling location. Spatial heterogeneity in sediment-associated bacterial communities appears to be much larger than in groundwater. We discuss how on the one hand, spatial heterogeneity may complicate the assessment of microbial community structure and functioning, while on the other it may provide better opportunities for natural attenuation. © 2008 Federation of European Microbiological Societies. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

To determine to what extent environmental factors and anthropogenic disturbances dictate N dynamics in tropical forest soils, changes of concentrations of inorganic N in soil were investigated during a period of extreme climatic conditions caused by El Niño and La Niña. This allowed the determination of factors driving the N-dynamics in tropical soils more clearly than during normal seasonal cycles. Three N-limited pine forests in Central Java, Indonesia, were studied monthly for over a year. N-NH

In many industrialized countries the use of land is impeded by soil pollution from a variety of sources. Decisions on clean-up, management or set-aside of contaminated land are based on various considerations, including human health risks, but ecological arguments do not have a strong position in such assessments. This paper analyses why this should be so, and what ecotoxicology and theoretical ecology can improve on the situation. It seems that soil assessment suffers from a fundamental weakness, which relates to the absence of a commonly accepted framework that may act as a reference. Soil contamination can be assessed both from a functional perspective and a structural perspective. The relationship between structure and function in ecosystems is a fundamental question of ecology which receives a lot of attention in recent literature, however, a general concept that may guide ecotoxicological assessments has not yet arisen. On the experimental side, a good deal of progress has been made in the development and standardized use of terrestrial model ecosystems (TME). In such systems, usually consisting of intact soil columns incubated in the laboratory under conditions allowing plant growth and drainage of water, a compromise is sought between field relevance and experimental manageability. A great variety of measurements can be made on such systems, including microbiological processes and activities, but also activities of the decomposer soil fauna. I propose that these TMEs can be useful instruments in ecological soil quality assessments. In addition a "bioinformatics approach" to the analysis of data obtained in TME experiments is proposed. Soil function should be considered as a multidimensional concept and the various measurements can be considered as indicators, whose combined values define the "normal operating range" of the system. Deviations from the normal operating range indicate that the system is in a condition of stress. It is hoped that more work along this line will improve the prospects for ecological arguments in soil quality assessment.

Three total genomic libraries of the springtail Orchesella cincta (Insecta; Collembola) were screened for the presence of microsatellites using phosphor and colour detection. PCR primers were successfully constructed for six dinucleotide, one trinucleotide, and one interrupted dinucleotide microsatellite repeat. None of the microsatellite arrays were longer than 11 repeat units. Individuals from three forests were investigated: five out of eight microsatellite markers were polymophic in all forests (2-5 alleles per locus) and the observed heterozygosity was 0.1-0.9 per locus.