We tried to quantify the ecotoxicity of three industrial soil samples contaminated by different metals, using the Collembolan Folsomia candida as a biological model and mortality, growth and reproduction as parameters. The observed ecotoxicities are rather normal for the first such soil sample (aluminum factory) but are high for the second sample (ore treatment) and relatively low for the third...

Sudden temperature changes in soil can induce stress in soil-dwelling invertebrates. Hyperthermic conditions have an impact on gene expression as one of the first steps. We use a transcriptomics approach using microarrays to identify expression changes in response to heat in the springtail Folsomia candida. An elevation of temperature (Delta 10 degrees C) altered the expression of 142 genes (11...

The ecotoxicological effects of transgenic maize-expressed vaccine protein, Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin subunit B (LTB), on two soil invertebrates were studied under laboratory settings. After being reared for 28 days on LTB-maize-treated soils, no apparent mortality of the springtail, Folsomia candida , or the earthworm, Eisenia fetida , was observed at levels well above conservat...

Both top-down (grazing) and bottom-up (resource availability) forces can determine the strength of priority effects, or the effects of species arrival history on the structure and function of ecological communities, but their combined influences remain unresolved. To test for such influences, we assembled experimental communities of wood-decomposing fungi using a factorial manipulation of fungi...

1 2 An avoidance test using the soil springtail Folsomia candida was used to assess 3 changes in contamination levels at low doses of PAHs following incubation with 4 indigenous microflora. A soil from a former coke site was diluted to 1% in an unpolluted 5 soil from the same site, which was used as a control, then both substrates were 6 remoistened to 80% field capacity. The diluted soil was p...

Organophosphates are popular insecticides, but relatively little is known about their chronic effects on ecologically relevant endpoints. In this paper, we examine a life-cycle experiment with the springtail Folsomia candida, exposed via food to chlorpyrifos (CPF). The results for all endpoints (survival, growth and reproduction) were analyzed using the DEBtox model. Growth was unaffected by CP...

Climate warming can destabilize interactions between competitors as smaller organisms gain advantages in warmer environments. Whether and how warming-induced effects on competitive interactions are modified by predation remains unknown. We hypothesized that predation will offset the competitive advantage of smaller prey species in warmer environments because of their greater vulnerability to pr...