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Application of a soil quality assessment system using ecotoxicological indicators to evaluate contaminated and remediated soils

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Abstract

The deterioration of soil quality owing to human activities results in adverse effects on the soil ecosystem. This study developed a systematic method to quantitatively evaluate soil quality based on physical, chemical, biological, and ecotoxicological indicators and proposed the soil quality assessment and management system. This system consists of step-by-step processes, including indicator classification, indicator measurement, scoring and weighting, and soil quality index (SQI) calculation. The novel strategy included the usage of authentic ecotoxicological indicators for realistically interpreting soil quality assessment results. This study used five ecotoxicological indicators, including earthworm survival, enzyme activities, nematode reproduction, plant germination and growth, soil algal biomass, and soil algal photosynthetic capacity. Relatively higher SQI values than those corresponding to the actual soil quality status would be obtained without considering the ecotoxicological indicators. We conclude that the use of ecotoxicological indicator can help in soil quality assessment even under extreme soil quality conditions, such as highly contaminated or physically and chemically remediated soils.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning through the National Research Foundation of Korea (2016R1A2B3010445, 2018R1A2B6006139). This work was also supported by Korea Environment Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI) funded by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) (Nos. 2016001970001, 2014000560001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Science, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, 05029, Korea

    Shin Woong Kim & Youn-Joo An

  2. Department of Environmental Engineering, Kunsan National University, Kunsan, 54150, Korea

    Seung-Woo Jeong

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  1. Shin Woong Kim
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Kim, S.W., Jeong, SW. & An, YJ. Application of a soil quality assessment system using ecotoxicological indicators to evaluate contaminated and remediated soils. Environ Geochem Health 42, 1681–1690 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-019-00321-7

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