Chlorpyrifos reduces nickel-induced growth retardation of the soil dwelling Collembolan Folsomia candida

For 7 weeks, we studied the effects on body size and growth rate of Folsomia candida exposed to nickel and chlorpyrifos and their mixtures in a natural Lufa 2.2 soil. Nickel significantly reduced the development of body size of the springtails, although no complete dose-response curve was obtained. Chlorpyrifos did not influence the springtail growth when applied alone, but significantly reduced the growth retardation induced by nickel. We showed that by monitoring the development of toxicity in time for both the single compounds and the mixtures it was possible to determine mixture interactions even when no complete dose-response curves were available for all mixture components. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.