scholarly journals Effect of heavy metals on the survival, growth and development of earthworm Eisenia fetida

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaganmeet Kaur ◽  
S.S. Hundal

The present laboratory study was carried out to determine the effect of the metal contaminated soil on the survival, growth and development of Eisenia fetida. Metal contaminated soil samples were collected from five different sites of Ludhiana city which is an industrial hub of Punjab. Maximum heavy metal concentrations were recorded in soil sample taken from hambran around the Buddha Nullah and minimum concentration of heavy metal from haibowal. The level of heavy metals chromium and nickel (347 ppm and 189 ppm) were higher than permissible limits according to CCME (2001), whereas lead (42.6 ppm) was within permissible limits. Adult E. fetida were exposed to different concentrations of heavy metals in artificial soil for 28 days. Significant effects were observed on growth and reproduction of the tested organisms. There was 100% survival of E. fetida in soil amended with lead, chromium and nickel along with morphological abnormalities such as extrusion of coelomic fluid. It was observed that the worms in the low and high doses of heavy metal treated substrate produced cocoons with a one week and two week delay, respectively, vis-a-vis the control group. Furthermore, the emergence of hatchlings started one week earlier in control than in soil treated with medium and high concentration of metals. It is safely concluded that presence of heavy metal in soils adversely affects the growth, reproduction and development of E. fetida. Results ofthe study indicated that reproduction was more sensitive to higher concentrations of heavy metal contaminated soil than survival or weight change.

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-523
Author(s):  
Kulwinder Kaur ◽  
Gurinder Kaur Sangha

The soil in the vicinity of stream of Buddah Nullah in Ludhiana, Punjab has been found to be contaminated with heavy metals. The objective of this paper was to conduct studies with earthworm Eisenia fetida (Savigny) exposed to five soil samples collected from different sites around the stream of Buddah Nullah, since no such work has been done using earthworm as bio- indicator of soil pollution in that area to check the hazardous effects of heavy metals on soil organisms. Metal levels were recorded higher in contaminated soil samples than threshold concentration in soil of campus field. Adult E. fetida were exposed for a period of 80 days to evaluate the effects of elevated levels of heavy metals i.e.0.29 ppm, 4.18 ppm and 2.29 ppm for cadmium, lead and nickel respectively on survival, growth, morphology and reproduction. Significant effects were observed on survival, growth and reproduction of the tested organisms along with various morphological abnormalities such as tail shedding, body fragmentation and extrusion of coelomic fluid. But no such deformity was observed in worms reared in reference soil of university campus field. Detrimental effects on rates of cocoon production and hatchling emergence were observed and a significant delay was also recorded in production of cocoons and emergence of hatchlings. Results of the study indicated that reproductive end points were more sensitive to elevated metal levels in contaminated soil than survival or weight change.


Author(s):  
Inesa Kniuipytė ◽  
Marius Praspaliauskas ◽  
Jūratė Žaltauskaitė ◽  
Austra Dikšaitytė

The amount of sewage sludge (SS) used in agriculture and forest plantations is constantly growing in EU. It’s known that even after various treatment methods some of contaminants still remain. The main risks of using SS in agriculture or forestry are related with hevy metals and organic pollutants content in SS. Heavy metals tend to acumu-late in the environment and living organisms and may cause different adverse effects. Bioremediation using earthworms can be used to eliminate or mitigate the threat of heavy metals. Bioremediation is cheaper, requiries less energy and is more environmentally friendly than conventional physical or chemical remediation methods. But it’s really important to evaluate bioremediation efficiency for SS, because there is evidence that nutrients in SS might improve efficiency of bioremediation. In this study earthworms Eisenia fetida were exposed for 9 weeks to SS amended soil. Earthworm mortality, growth and heavy metals (Al, Fe) accumulation were evaluated. The results showed that SS had a highly significant effect on earthworm mortality (F=4.98; p;lt0.05) and growth (F=3.88–67.02; p;lt0.05). Both metals concentrations in soil were signifficant (p;lt0.05) lower after vermi-remediation than after SS soil amendments. SS concentration had a significant effect to Al concentration accumulated in earthworm tissue (F=33.71; p;lt0.05). This study demonstrated that bioremediation efficiency using E. fetida depends on concentrations of SS, survival and growth of earthworms.


Author(s):  
MdDidarul Islam, Ashiqur Rahaman, Aboni Afrose

This study was based on determining concentration of essential and toxic heavy metal in coconut water available at a local Hazaribagh area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. All essential minerals, if present in the drinking water at high concentration or very low concentration, it has negative actions. In this study, fifteen samples and eight heavy metals were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) method which was followed by wet ashing digestion method. The concentration obtained in mg/l were in the range of 0.3 to 1.5, 7.77 to 21.2, 0 to 0.71, 0 to 0.9, 0 to 0.2, 0.9 to 17.3, 0.1 to 0.9, 0 to 0.9 and 0 to 0.7 for Fe, Ni, Cu, Cd, Cr, Zn, Pb and Se respectively. From this data it was concluded that any toxic heavy metals like Cd, Cr, Pb and Ni exceed their toxicity level and some essential nutrients were in low concentration in those samples. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
S.I. Alekseeva ◽  
Zh.M. Okhlopkova

The methods of biotesting of the aquatic environment based on the representative of the duckweed family (lat. Lemnaceae) greater duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza (L.) Schleid) were considered. A review is presented on the use of greater duckweed as a model object in biological testing, in partic-ular, when exposed to heavy metals salts. When cultivated Spirodela polyrhiza with the addition of heavy metals salts, a change in the growth and development of plants in the experienced line of plants was revealed, as well as a decrease in the content of chlorophyll a and b.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadia Qayyum ◽  
Ke Meng ◽  
Sidra Pervez ◽  
Faiza Nawaz ◽  
Changsheng Peng

Abstract Soil contamination with heavy metal content is a growing concern throughout the world as a result of industrial, mining, agricultural and domestic activities. Fungi are the most common and efficient group of heavy metal resistant microbe family which have potential for metal bioleaching. The use of filamentous fungi in bioleaching of heavy metals from contaminated soil has been developed recently. The current study intends to isolate a strain with the ability to degrade the pH value of the liquid medium. Identification results based on morphological and molecular biological analysis gave a 98% match to Aspergillus flavus. Batch experiments were conducted to select the optimal conditions for bioleaching process which indicated that 130 mg/ L sucrose, neutral pH and temperature of 30°C were more suitable during 15-day bioleaching experiments using A. flavus. In one-step bioleaching, the bioleaching efficiencies were 18.16% for Pb, 39.77% for Cd and 58.22% for Zn+2, while two-step bioleaching showed efficiencies of 16.91% for Pb, 49.66% for Cd and 65.73% for Zn+2. Overall, this study indicates that bioleaching of heavy metals in contaminated soil using A. flavus has the potential for contaminated soil remediation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-26
Author(s):  
M Iqbal Hossain ◽  
M Nural Anwar

The aim and objective of the study was to isolate and characterize heavy metal tolerant microorganisms from tannery effluents. Six effluent samples were collected aseptically and their physical and chemical parameters were determined. A total of 40 bacterial colonies were isolated from these effluent samples. Among them, six bacterial isolates were characterized provisionally as Alcaligenes aquamarinus, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus firmus, Enterobacter cloacae, Pseudomonas alcaligens and Pseudomonas mendocina based on morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics. The survibality and tolerance to heavy metals (Cr and Cu) of these isolates were examined. All the isolates were found to grow at high concentration of CuSO4 (95ppm/ml) and varying degrees of chromium (K2Cr2O7). The highest tolerance was shown by Alcaligenes aquamarinus. These heavy metal tolerant organisms could be potential agents for bioremediation of heavy metals polluted environment.Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 29, Number 1, June 2012, pp 23-26


2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Reginawanti Hindersah ◽  
Rija Sudirja

Azotobacter might be used as biological agents in bioremediation of heavy metal-contaminated soil since this rhizobacteria produceexopolysachharides (EPS) that mobilize soil heavy metals, and phytohormones that regulate root growth. So that heavy metal uptake bythe roots could be increased. The objective of this research was to verify the stability of EPS and phytohormones in Azotobacter liquidinoculants during four months in different temperature storage. Liquid inoculants has been produced in EPS-induced media and stored in200C and room temperature (24-270C) during four months. The results showed that the better temperature storage was room temperatureinstead of 20 0C since pH, total N, and EPS and phytohormones content was relatively stable during storage.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Y TEH ◽  
Min-Hao Wu ◽  
Kf Chen ◽  
Yp Peng

This project is carried out to assess the remediation effect on soil contaminated by molybdenum (Mo), one of heavy metals, through the use of an energy crop, sunflowers. This project explores the integration of phytohormones and chelates in the phytoremediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals, and further assesses the operational measures of remedying heavy-metal contaminated soil with sunflowers, in addition to the related environmental factors. Then the project explores phytohormones and heavy metals on the growth scenario explants (explants morphological analysis) through the experiment. The results indicate that GA3 can increase the growth rate of the plants. The average incremental growth of the heavy-metal-added-only group is 21.0 cm; of the GA3-added group it is 21.9 cm; of the EDDS-added group, it is 20.3 cm; of the GA3+ EDDS-added group, it is 21.7 cm. Compared with the conventional methods of phytoremediation, these integrated measures can actually spur the growth of plants. 


Biologia ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamala Gupta ◽  
Chitrita Chatterjee ◽  
Bhaskar Gupta

AbstractThe present study was conducted to determine the culturable bacterial profile from Kestopur canal (Kolkata, India) and analyze their heavy metal tolerance. In addition to daily sewage including solid and soluble wastes, a considerable load of toxic metals are released into this water body from industries, tanneries and agriculture, household as well as health sectors. Screening out microbes from such an environment was done keeping in mind their multifunctional application especially for bioremediation. Heavy metals are major environmental pollutants when present in high concentration in soil and show potential toxic effects on growth and development in plants and animals. Some edible herbs growing in the canal vicinity, and consumed by people, were found to harbour these heavy metals at sub-toxic levels. The bioconcentration factor of these plants being <1 indicates that they probably only absorb but not accumulate heavy metals. All the thirteen Grampositive bacteria isolated from these plants rhizosphere were found to tolerate high concentration of heavy metals like Co, Ni, Pb, Cr, Fe. Phylogenetic analysis of their 16S rDNA genes revealed that they belonged to one main taxonomic group — the Firmicutes. Seven of them were found to be novel with 92–95% sequence homology with known bacterial strains. Further microbiological analyses show that the alkaliphilic Bacillus weihenstephanensis strain IA1 and Exiguobacterium aestuarii strain CE1, with selective antibiotic sensitivity along with high Ni2+ and Cr6+ removal capabilities, respectively, can be prospective candidates for bioremediation.


Author(s):  
Himalaya Bhardwaj ◽  
Chanchal Singh ◽  
Shashi Nayyar

Background: With the pace of industrialization, heavy metal level has been increasing in animals thereby causing deleterious effects, which emanate as public health concern, associated with their accumulation in food chain. The present study was undertaken to assess the systemic damage caused by heavy metals in buffaloes. Methods: The assessment of adverse effects of the lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and cadmium (Cd), in blood was determined by monitoring the levels of biochemical parameters, antioxidants and expression of metallothionein in buffaloes. Blood and tissue (liver, kidney, pancreas and ovary) samples (n=50) were collected from local abattoir to estimate the levels of lead, nickel and cadmium using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Antioxidants and biochemical parameters were estimated using standard procedures and while the expression of metallothionein-2 was analyzed using real-time PCR.Result: After determining the concentration of heavy metals in samples the buffaloes were classified as heavy metal exposed and non-exposed groups. The plasma level of heavy metals were found to be significantly (p less than 0.05) higher than the permissible limit in exposed buffaloes. In tissues, heavy metals levels were within the permissible limits. Malondialdehyde level in each of lead, nickel and cadmium exposed groups was significantly (p less than 0.05) higher than the non-exposed, control group. The antioxidant activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione was found to be increased significantly (p less than 0.05) in exposed groups. Also, plasma glucose, cholesterol, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), creatine kinase (CK), urea and creatinine levels were found to be significantly higher (p less than 0.05) in the blood of the animal model used for the study. The fold change expression of MT-2 in blood was found to be at maximum level in cadmium and minimum in nickel exposed buffaloes. It can be concluded from the results of the experiment that heavy metals affect major organs (liver, kidney and muscle etc.) as evident by altered intracellular expression of MT-2, antioxidants and biochemical parameters.


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