Bioavailability of pentachlorophenol to earthworms (Eisenia fetida) in artificially contaminated soils

The bioaccumulation of pentachlorophenol in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) was studied for two artificially contaminated soils (S1 and S2). The uptake kinetics of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in earthworms increased quickly within the initial 10 days. This was followed by a nearly steady state for the next 20 days that fit with the equilibrium partitioning model. The correlation coefficients were 0.812 and 0.715 for S1 and S2, respectively. The average biota-to-soil accumulation factor of PCP in S1 was 0.51 +/- 0.09, whereas that of S2 was 0.79 +/- 0.12. There was a significant correlation between log Csoil and log Cworm, demonstrating the validity of the equilibrium partitioning model. The bioavailability of PCP was assessed by chemical extraction methods. The results demonstrated a close correlation between extractable amounts of PCP freshly added in soils and those in earthworms. With increasing residence time of PCP in soil, there was a progressively smaller amount of PCP assimilated by the earthworms. In contrast, the amount extracted by Soxhlet extraction did not show a similar decline. However, the extractable amount of PCP by methanol and methanol-water (1:1) significantly decreased over 440 days. Compared with the methanol-water (1:1) extraction method, the methanol extraction method was preferred to the prediction of the bioavailability of PCP in aged soils.