The Effect of Heavy Metals and Petroleum Hydrocarbons on the Collembolan Fauna in Soil of Some Industrial Regions of Isfahan

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

This research was aimed to investigate the effects of heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons contaminants in Isfahan Refinery and Mobarake Steel factory soils on diversity of Collembolan Arthropods. The concentration of heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons were measured using atomic absorption and Soxhlet methods, respectively. Soil Collembola were collected using burl funnel, and finally, eleven species belonging to 6 families from 2 suborder of collembola were identified. In heavy metals contaminated soils, three species including Isotomiella minor, Ceratophysella stercoraria and Hypogastura sp.1, have the highest percentages of frequency respectively. As well as, the highest frequency of collembola in contaminated soil with petroleum hydrocarbons were related to Hypogastura sp., Isotomiella minor and Ceratophysella stercoraria species respectively. In this research, the Folsomia candida showed highly susceptibility against soil pollutions, was not collected from heavy metals and oil hydrocarbons contaminated soils and can be used as a biomarker. This is the first report of collembolan fauna in soils containing environmental pollutants in Iran.

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