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Avoidance tests with the oribatid mite Oppia nitens (Acari: Oribatida) in cadmium-spiked natural soils

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Abstract

Avoidance behavior can be a useful parameter for assessing the ability of organisms to escape from pollutants in their environment. For soil evaluation, a variety of invertebrates is used including the oribatid mite Oppia nitens. Here, we tested the avoidance behavior of O. nitens using a two-chamber test and an escape test with exposures to different cadmium concentrations of up to 800 mg kg−1 dry LUFA 2.2 soil for 2, 4, and 6 days, and up to 7 weeks. With the two-chamber method, the oribatid mites had the choice between clean and polluted soils, whereas they were allowed to escape from a box with polluted soil to clean containers without soil with the escape method. Avoidance of cadmium was observed after 2 days in both tests and the net response of the mites in the two-chamber test increased with increasing cadmium exposure concentrations. Mite responses varied through time, especially with the escape method; with the avoidance behavior becoming more variable and overall non-significant with longer test durations. This is the first study investigating the escape test simultaneously with long-term avoidance of cadmium by O. nitens. This mite species is a promising species for avoidance testing in soil ecotoxicology, but more experiments are needed to evaluate the factors that influence its responses in laboratory tests and the consequences for its distribution in contaminated ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic-MEYS (projects LM2015075, EF16_013/0001782). This work has also been supported by Charles University Research Centre program No. 204069. The present study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology of the Islamic Republic of Iran which allowed MKJ to complete a fellowship in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We thank the reviewers and Associate Editor for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Environmental Studies, Charles University in Prague, Benátská 2, 12801, Prague, Czech Republic

    Masoud M. Ardestani

  2. Institute of Soil Biology and SoWa Research Infrastructure, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Sádkách 7, 37005, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Masoud M. Ardestani

  3. Department of Plant Protection, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Maryam Keshavarz-Jamshidian

  4. Department of Ecological Science, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Cornelis A. M. van Gestel & Nico M. van Straalen

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  1. Masoud M. Ardestani
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  2. Maryam Keshavarz-Jamshidian
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  3. Cornelis A. M. van Gestel
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  4. Nico M. van Straalen
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Correspondence to Masoud M. Ardestani.

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Ardestani, M.M., Keshavarz-Jamshidian, M., van Gestel, C.A.M. et al. Avoidance tests with the oribatid mite Oppia nitens (Acari: Oribatida) in cadmium-spiked natural soils. Exp Appl Acarol 82, 81–93 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10493-020-00536-9

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