Prediction of Cd and Pb toxicity to Vibrio fischeri using biotic ligand-based models in soil.

Biotic ligand-based models to predict site-specific toxicity of Cd and Pb contaminated soil were developed by using a Vibrio fischeri toxicity test. Firstly, competition effect by cations (i.e., Ca, Mg, K) commonly found in soil solution was incorporated into the models. For this purpose, biotic ligand-based model parameters including conditional binding constants of cations and metal ions to binding sites (i.e., biotic ligands) and the fractions of binding sites occupied by the metal ions were determined. Data from aqueous phase toxicity test showed that the difference between model-predicted EC(50) values of Cd and Pb and experimentally determined EC(50) values ranged within a factor of two, suggesting that the developed model parameters were reliable. Secondly, the use of soil solution to predict soil toxicity of Cd and Pb was experimentally verified with freshly spiked and field-aged soils. The results showed linear relationships in both soils, meaning that toxicity of soil solution can be representative of toxicity of soil. Finally, applicability of the developed models in Cd- or Pb-spiked soils was investigated by comparing predicted toxic effects (i.e., % bioluminescence inhibition at given cations and metal activities in soil solution) and experimentally obtained toxic effects determined by Microtox(®) solid phase toxicity test. Our data demonstrate that toxicity of Cd- or Pb-contaminated soil can be predicted by using the developed biotic ligand-based model with the chemical analysis data of soil solution as input data.