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Eisenia fetida growth inhibition by amended activated carbon causes less bioaccumulation of heavy metals

  • SEDIMENTS, SEC 4 • SEDIMENT-ECOLOGY INTERACTIONS • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Activated carbons (ACs) were applied to evaluate the effects of surface oxidation on bioavailability and bioaccumulation of cadmium (Cd) and copper (Cu) in freshwater sediment along with Eisenia fetida biomass change.

Materials and methods

A modified sequential extraction procedure was conducted to measure the changes in bioavailable fractions of heavy metals 6 weeks after the addition of nitric acid-oxidized AC. Bioaccumulation of heavy metals in E. fetida was analyzed after 2 weeks of exposure to AC-amended contaminated sediments. Changes in biomass of earthworms caused by AC amendments were observed over 2 weeks of exposure to clean sand.

Results and discussion

Surface oxidation of AC caused little impact on AC surface properties except for oxygen contents leading to enhanced sorption capacity for heavy metals. Bioavailable fractions of the heavy metals increased after 6 weeks, and less was bioavailable with various ACs than without AC. The earthworms were exposed to the sediments mixed with ACs for 6 weeks. After 2 weeks of exposure, bioaccumulation of Cd and Cu decreased drastically. More than 76 % of Cd and 80 % of Cu reductions were observed with each type and dose of AC. Weight loss of E. fetida incubated in clean sand for 13 days after AC amendments was observed, but was not affected by surface oxidation.

Conclusions

Inhibited growth of E. fetida due to AC could be responsible for the reduced bioaccumulation of Cd and Cu in the earthworms as AC inhibited the movement of earthworms, leading to less bioturbation and decreased consumption of nutrients.

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Acknowledgments

This research is financially supported by the Republic of Korea Ministry of Environment as “Green Remediation Research Center for Organic-Inorganic Combined Contamination (The GAIA Project-2012000550001).”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, South Korea

    Doyoon Kim, Ji-Young Yoo & Jae-Woo Park

  2. HALLA Energy & Environment, Seoul, 138-811, South Korea

    Jeeeun Min

Authors
  1. Doyoon Kim
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  2. Jeeeun Min
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  3. Ji-Young Yoo
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  4. Jae-Woo Park
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Correspondence to Jae-Woo Park.

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Responsible editor: Henner Hollert

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Kim, D., Min, J., Yoo, JY. et al. Eisenia fetida growth inhibition by amended activated carbon causes less bioaccumulation of heavy metals. J Soils Sediments 14, 1766–1773 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0934-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-014-0934-0

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