Assessment of toxicity of soil contaminated with benz[a]pyrene

A model experiment was carried out to assess the toxicity of soddy-podzolic soil artificially contaminated with benz[a]pyrene (BP) at doses of 10 and 20 MPC. It was established that a decrease in the accumulation of biomass by the roots of garden cress plants begins to manifest itself only when the content of BP is 20 MPC. The introduction of BP into the soil leads to an increase in the content of malonic dialdehyde in plant shoots, which indicates the intensification of lipid peroxidation processes under conditions of oxidative stress. In the presence of BP, the ambiguity of reproduction of soil microorganisms was shown. The most sensitive group to this pollutant turned out to be ammonifiers, which can be considered as an indicator group of organisms for soil contamination with BP. The Ecolum bacterial test system also proved to be sensitive to BP. Thus, soil contaminated with 20 MPC BP is toxic for such groups of soil microorganisms as ammonifiers and nitrogen fixers, for garden cress seedlings and the Ecolum test system.