Assessment of the effects of soil PAH accumulation by a battery of ecotoxicological tests

Surface soils were collected at remote, urban and industrial sites in the Southern of Italy in order to evaluate PAH concentrations and assess the toxic effects by a battery of ecotoxicological tests. The tests were performed oil whole soils and on both organic and aqueous extracts. Further goal of this study was to integrate the results coming from each test and matrix in a synthetic toxicity index. The highest Sigma PAH concentrations were measured at the industrial soil, although this one did not show all high ecotoxicological risk. Among the performed tests, the phytotoxicity tests showed the highest sensitivity. For whole soil, the worst case always has been represented by test through bacteria. Our results could represent the first step toward the selection of a proper battery to characterize the soil ecotoxicological risk. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.