Bioassays for the ecotoxicological and genotoxicological assessment of contaminated soils (Results of a round-robin test)

For the assessment of contaminated or remediated soils, aside from chemical analyses, ecotoxicological tests are performed which focus on the retention function of soils (determined by tests with aqueous soil extracts) and on the habitat function (determined by tests with soil). Whereas numerous tests exist as standardized guidelines for identifying the effect of chemicals, this is not the case for the assessment of soil quality. A round-robin test was performed to monitor the comparability of the results from ecotoxicological test methods on soils and to facilitate the standardization of corresponding test methods. Four contaminated soils were tested using a total number of fifteen test systems, including ecotoxicological and genotoxicological tests with soil extracts and soil. In the second part of this publication series, the results obtained from the tests with soil microorganisms and soil fauna are presented.