Effects of soil properties and long aging time on the toxicity of exogenous antimony to soil-dwelling springtail Folsomia candida

The most existing studies on the toxicity of antimony (Sb) were performed in limited types of soil and after short aging time. Effects of soil properties and long aging time on chronic toxicity of Sb(III) and Sb(V) to model organism Folsomia candida were studied in the laboratory studies. The results showed that after the Sb(V)-treated soils were aged for 365 d, the Sb exhibited no toxicity to survival and reproduction even at the nominal highest concentration of 12,800 mg kg(-1) in ten types of soils with distinct differences in soil properties. In the Sb(III)-treated ten soils aged only for 30 d, the concentrations causing 50% mortality (LC50) and concentrations inhibiting 50% reproduction (EC50) were 1288-3219 mg kg(-1) and 683-1829 mg kg(-1), respectively. The LC50 were higher than the highest test concentration and the EC50 significantly increased by 2.24-6.16 fold after the Sb(III)-treated soils were aged for 150 d, and soil pH was the most important single factor explaining the variance in aging effects. After the aging time was 365 d, similar with Sb(V)-treated soils, no toxicity were observed in the most Sb(III)-treated soils, indicating the increasing aging effects with aging time. Regression analysis indicated that the OM and pH were the most important single factor predicting Sb toxicity to reproduction in Sb(III)-treated soils aged for 30 and 150 d, respectively. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.