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(80-25) Avoidance tests as early screening tools for site specific assessment in polluted soils. Natal da Luz, Tiago*,1, Loureiro, Susana2, Ribeiro, Rui1, Sousa, Jose1, Soares, Amadeu2, 1 Instituto do Ambiente e Vida, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal2 Departamento de Biologia, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal ABSTRACT- The existence of unfavourable conditions in soil (e.g. a chemical stressor) may influence the presence of soil fauna in a particular site. Therefore their preference behaviour may act as an indicator of the stress potential of a particular soil. In this study a series of bioassays using avoidance behaviour as variable are presented as screening tools for assessing the toxic potential of metal polluted soils. Four different soils from a mining area, with a different degree of contamination with heavy metals, were used to perform avoidance tests using earthworms, collembola and isopods as test organisms. Each soil was tested against each other and against LUFA reference soil. Results obtained differed slightly according to the organism tested, especially in terms of variability. However it was possible to verify a significant preference for the less polluted soils by all the organisms tested. The specific methodological aspects derived by using different organisms, were evaluated and their suitability for this type of bioassays are addressed. Key words: Avoidance behaviour, Heavy metals, Screening tests |
