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Effects of soil acid stress on the survival, growth, reproduction, antioxidant enzyme activities, and protein contents in earthworm (Eisenia fetida)

  • Earthworm and Soil Pollution
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Abstract

This study focused on the study of earthworm survival, growth, reproduction, enzyme activities, and protein contents to evaluate and predict the effects of different soil pH levels and determine the optimal risk assessment indicators for the effects. Survival rate, growth rate, and cocoon number as well as four enzyme (glutathione peroxidase (GSH-PX), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT)) activities and two proteins (total protein (TP) and metallothionein (MT)) contents in earthworms were determined to characterize the responses of earthworm activity to five soil pH levels. These biological datasets (survival, growth, and reproduction) were compared with biochemical indexes (GSH-PX, SOD, POD, CAT, TP, and MT), mainly using biphasic dose-response models. The results indicated that the soil pH value had significant inhibitory effects on the survival, growth, and reproduction of earthworms beginning with 3.0, 4.0, and 5.2, respectively. The dose-response models (J-shaped and inverted U-shaped curves) statistics indicated that the critical values (ECZEP) of the GSH-PX, SOD, POD, CAT, TP, and MT inhibited by soil acid stress were 3.46, 3.76, 3.35, 3.54, 3.50, and 3.96 (average 3.60), respectively. In the present study, the fitting curve analysis showed that the responses of the CAT activities and TP and MT contents in earthworm in response to soil pH have the behavior of hormesis.

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Funding

This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U1401234, 41601227 and 41701262) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFD0800300, 2016YFD0201301).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Jialong Wu, Zongling Ren, Chi Zhang, Ting Deng, Haoyu Wang & Jun Dai

  2. Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation in South China, Ministry of Agriculture People’s Republic of China, Guangzhou, 510642, China

    Jialong Wu, Zongling Ren, Chi Zhang, Ting Deng, Haoyu Wang & Jun Dai

  3. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Land and Resources for Construction Land Transformation, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Jialong Wu, Zongling Ren, Chi Zhang, Ting Deng, Haoyu Wang & Jun Dai

  4. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Land Use and Consolidation, Guangzhou, 510140, China

    Jialong Wu, Zongling Ren, Chi Zhang, Ting Deng, Haoyu Wang & Jun Dai

  5. Université d’Orléans, CNRS/INSU Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans, UMR 6113, Campus Géosciences, 1A rue de la Férollerie, 41071, Orléans, France

    Mikael Motelica-Heino

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  1. Jialong Wu
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Correspondence to Zongling Ren or Jun Dai.

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Wu, J., Ren, Z., Zhang, C. et al. Effects of soil acid stress on the survival, growth, reproduction, antioxidant enzyme activities, and protein contents in earthworm (Eisenia fetida). Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 33419–33428 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04643-y

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