The ecotoxicology of a soil core collected from a disused industrial area near Naples (Italy), contaminated by hydrocarbons and heavy metals, was investigated and the relationships between toxicity and pollutant concentrations were considered. The ecotoxicological evaluation was performed by acute and chronic toxicity tests both on the whole soil and on aqueous and organic extracts, utilizing organisms belonging to different trophic levels: the bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri, the green microalga Selenastrum capricornutum, the plants Sinapis alba, Lepidium sativum and Sorghum saccharatum, the cladoceran Daphnia magna, and the ostracod Heterocypris incongruens. Toxicity measured with the whole soil was lower than those obtained with both soil organic and aqueous extracts and did not seem comparable with the vertical trend of organic and inorganic contamination. V. fischeri identified the toxic effects due to the chemical interaction and/or to the undetectable contaminants in the whole soil. Phytotoxicity tests revealed as the most sensitive ones. Particularly, S. capricornutum was able to evidence the long term effects of both organic and inorganic contaminants, while plant tests mainly identified the stimulating effects of trace elements. © by PSP 2008.

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