Collembola mortality test for monitoring of contaminated sites

For monitoring the ecotoxicity of contaminated sites, please see the ecotoxicological methodology applied for soil and groundwater (https://enfo.hu/en/node/13265).

The Folsomia candida inhibition test is an international standardized test method (ISO/TC 190SC4, WG2). 20 test animals are placed onto 10 g of dry powdered soil into a 200 cm³ volume, closed glass container, wetted with 5 ml water and incubated at room temperature for 7 days in darkness. Two replicates are applied in all cases. At the beginning of test dried yeast powder is placed into the glass containers supplying the food for the test animals. For the determination of the inhibition percentage the number of the surviving animals is counted, then with the following formula the inhibition percentage values are calculated:

H(%) = (K - M)/K * 100, where H: inhibition percentage [%]; K: number of surviving animals in case of the uncontaminated control (uncontaminated soil); M: number of surviving animals in case of the polluted samples.