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Joint toxicity of chlorpyrifos, atrazine, and cadmium at lethal concentrations to the earthworm Eisenia fetida

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 22, pages 9307–9315 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Contaminants in the environment often occur as complex mixtures, and their combined effect may exhibit toxicity to organisms. Risk assessments based on individual components tend to underestimate the effects associated with toxic action of mixtures. Toxicity studies on chemical mixtures are urgently required to assess their potential combined toxicities. The combination index (CI)-isobologram method was used to study chemical interactions to determine the nature of toxicological interactions of two pesticides chlorpyrifos and atrazine and a heavy metal cadmium toward earthworm Eisenia fetida by artificial soil and filter paper acute toxicity tests. The results showed that the binary mixture of chlorpyrifos and atrazine was antagonistic toward E. fetida at all f a levels in an artificial soil test. The combination of atrazine and Cd exhibited a slight degree of synergism throughout the exposure range, while chlorpyrifos plus Cd combination led to dual antagonistic/synergistic behavior. The nature of binary combinations in filter paper displayed opposite interaction to that in the artificial soil test, and the toxicity of ternary mixtures was not significantly synergistic than their binaries. The combination index (CI)-isobologram equation method could determine the interaction types for a series of effect levels of three chemicals in binary and ternary combinations in two types of acute earthworm tests. However, the nature of these interactions was not uniform along the f a level range in any of the two tests. Bioavailability, the nature of toxicological interaction, and the test organism need to be considered for understanding exposures and chemical measures. The synergistic effect for the particular binary combination suggests that a potential risk associated with the co-occurrence of these pollutants may still exist, which may have implications in risk assessment for the terrestrial environment. The combined effects between different contaminants might be influenced by the category of chemical, as well as the bioassay procedures. More studies of combined toxicities among these contaminants in the terrestrial environment should be conducted to identify the mixtures exhibiting synergistic pattern of interactions.

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Acknowledgments

The research was supported by the Zhejiang Province Major Bidding Project (Grant No. 2014C02002), Science and Technology Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Innovation Project of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

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    Affiliations

    1. Lab (Hangzhou) for Risk Assessment of Agricultural Products of Ministry of Agriculture, State Key Laboratory Breeding Base for Zhejiang Sustainable Pest and Disease Control/Key Laboratory for Pesticide Residue Detection of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Quality and Standard for Agricultural Products, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310021, China

      Guiling Yang, Yanhua Wang, Leiming Cai & Qiang Wang

    2. Key Laboratory of Agro-Product Quality and Safety of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Quality Standards and Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

      Chen Chen, Xiangzhen Kong & Yongzhong Qian

    Authors
    1. Guiling Yang
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    2. Chen Chen
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    3. Yanhua Wang
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    4. Leiming Cai
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    6. Yongzhong Qian
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    7. Qiang Wang
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    Correspondence to Yongzhong Qian or Qiang Wang.

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    Guiling Yang and Chen Chen contributed equally to this study.

    Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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    Yang, G., Chen, C., Wang, Y. et al. Joint toxicity of chlorpyrifos, atrazine, and cadmium at lethal concentrations to the earthworm Eisenia fetida . Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 9307–9315 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4097-3

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4097-3

    Keywords

    • Insecticide
    • Herbicide
    • Heavy metal
    • Eisenia fetida
    • Acute mixture toxicity
    • Combination index