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Soil Ecotoxicity
Soils are complex systems and factors affecting the availability of contaminants are not well understood. Reliance on chemical specific criteria is limiting because the approach does not address:
- Potential interactive effects.
- Factors affecting bioavailability.
- Effects of background conditions.
- Unknown toxic constituents and conditions.
- Ecosystem structure and function.
The main component of a terrestrial test is a biological assessment with species representative of major trophic levels in soil systems. The species are employed as sensors and detectors of environmental quality. The typical species include:
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Worms.
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Springtails.
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Nematodes.
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Bioluminescent bacteria (Microtox T).
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Plants, typically lettuce, barley, and northern wheatgrass.
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Or any other species the client deems appropriate.
The terrestrial ecotoxicity assessment can be used to determine concentrations of drilling product blends in soil such that there are limited to no effects, or they can be combined to determine safe biopile contamination endpoints.
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