02893naa a2200169 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000200006024500540008026000090013452021860014370000190232970000150234870000220236370000170238577303210240213148682008-09-24       2008    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aKUPERMAN, R. G.  aEcotoxicological assessment of contaminated land.  c2008  aOver the past two decades, soil ecotoxicologists have made strides in utilizing the basic concepts and advancements in soil zoology and ecology. They have applied the existing tools, and developed new tools to investigate how chemical contamination can affect soil ecosystems, including the degradation or destruction of soil habitats, diminishment of below-ground biodiversity, and negative impacts on complex food webs and the associated above-ground biotic communities. Soil ecotoxicologists at present are applying a suite of standard protocols, originally developed for laboratory soil toxicity testing, and further enhancing both the approaches and protocols for the assessment of contaminated lands. The current challenge is how to integrate species-specific sensitivities, the effects of physical and chemical soil properties, contaminant bioavailability and toxicity, uptake and bioconcentration, and spatial and temporal variations in abundance and diversity of soil organisms, into coherent toxicological assessments of soil ecosystems amid contaminated lands. This overview will attempt to address the question that usually confronts an ecotoxicologist in any assessment of a soil ecosystem: ?Which terrestrial toxicity tests constitute an appropriate test battery?? There is a plethora of methods that focus on the assessment of soils via spiking, or amendment, with chemicals or other test substances. However, only those methods that contain procedures for assessing contaminated site-specific soils (or those methods that can easily be adapted for that purpose) are recommended for such a test battery, and those will be discussed in this overview. Important considerations that will be addressed include: 1) a need for a greatly improved understanding of the potential effects of chemical contaminants on the structure and function of soil ecosystems; and 2) ready availability of reliable appropriate soil toxicity test methods that have been developed explicitly to assess the toxicity of contaminated site soils. International soil toxicity test methods that have been standardized, or those that are in the process of being standardized, will also be reviewed.1 aCHECKAI, R. T.1 aROMBKE, J.1 aSTEPHENSON. G. L.1 aSOUSA, J. P.  tIn: INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SOIL ZOOLOGY, 15; INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON APTERYGOTA, 12., 2008, Curitiba. Biodiversity, conservation and sustainabele management of soil animal: abstracts. Colombo: Embrapa Florestas. Editors: George Gardner Brown; Klaus Dieter Sautter; Renato Marques; Amarildo Pasini. 1 CD-ROM.