Soil pollution and its

impact on soil life

Mark Hodson
Structure
• Sources of soil pollution
• How wide spread is the problem?
• When is a pollutant a problem
• Scale / level of impact
• Effects
• Quantifying effects
• Opportunities
• Challenges

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 2

Sources of pollution

Image from: http://www.michellehenry.fr/pollution.htm

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 3

How wide spread is the problem?

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 4

How wide spread is the problem?

325 000 potentially contaminated sites

c. 300 000 ha
c. 2% of land area
33 500 contaminated sites identified to date
21 000 treated
EA 2009 figures

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 5

How wide spread is the problem?

360 000 potentially contaminated sites

German Federal Ministry for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and
Nuclear Safety 2002 figures

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 6

How wide spread is the problem?

40 000 potentially contaminated sites

Danish Ministry of the Environment 2009
figures

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 7

How wide spread is the problem?

60 000 potentially contaminated sites

Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning
and the Environment (now part of the
Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment)
2009 figures
Cost estimated at 100 billion Dutch guilders
in 1997 (c. 500 M € today)
Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 8
When is a pollutant a problem?

Image from: Semple et al.

(2004) Environ. Sci. Technol. 38
(12)

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 9

When is a pollutant a problem

Cr(VI) vs Cr(III), Cr metal

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules

Metallothioneins
Image from: Professor Frank Shaw,
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/cfsiii/www/

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 11

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules

Heat shock proteins

Image from:
http://www.usnon.com/expressi
on-of-heat-shock-protein-70-in-
human-skin-cells.htm

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 12

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells

Image from:
http://www.kathimitchell.com/cells.html

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 13

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells

Image from: Hopkin (1989)

Ecophysiology of metals in terrestrial
invertebrates. Granule in
hepatopancreas of a snail

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 14

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
Image from:
Cotter-
Howells et
al (2005)
Environ.
Sci.
Technol. 39
7731-7740

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 15

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Image from:
http://decenthospital.com/organs.html

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 16

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Surface precipitates
Image: Sonja Selenska-
Pobell/Mohamed Larbi Merroun);
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9
821-bacteria-skin-helps-assemble-
metal-nanoclusters.html

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 17

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Hepatopancreas (liver +
pancreas)
Image:
http://rioiriri.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/bio-
geekery-giant-isopods.html

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 18

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Chloragog
Image:
http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/ar
t-67299/Earthworms-belong-to-a-
group-of-worms-known-as-segmented

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 19

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Midgut (Cd), Cuticle (Zn)

Image: http://www.cgm-
gardenlife.co.uk/pages/Centipedes-
Milipedes-Earwigs-and-Woodlice.html

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 20

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs

Midgut epithelium
Image:
http://www.utexas.edu/tmm/sponsored_
sites/biospeleology/photos.htm

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 21

Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs Image from: Field studies council
http://www.field-studies-
• Animals council.org/breathingplaces/minibeasts.
htm

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 22

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost

vs

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 23

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost

x vs x

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 24

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost
• Survival

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 25

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost
• Survival
• Evolution

Reference

Stream

Cottage Image: Jane Andre

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 26

 Scale / level of impact
• Molecules
• Cells
• Organs
• Animals
• Ecosystems
Image from: Portland State University
http://ecoplexity.org/soil_model

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 27

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost
• Survival
• Population structure

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 28

Effect on soil organisms
• Metabolic cost
• Survival
• Population structure
• Community / ecosystem

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 29

Quantifying the effects
• Diversity indices

Simpson’s diversity index

(0 = no diversity, 1 = infinite diversity)

1 – (-----) ∑ n (n – 1)

N (N – 1)

n = number of a particular species

N = total number
Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 30
Quantifying the effects

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 31

The “omic” revolutions

Image from:
http://www.chemeng.ucla.edu/research/
research-areas/biomolecular-
engineering-and-systems-biology

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 32

Mixtures

Image from: Jonker et al. (2004)

Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 23 1529 - 1537

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 33

Summary
• Pollutants are generated by all sorts of human
activities
• Soil pollution is a wide spread problem
• Pollutants have to be “bioavailable” to cause harm
• Impacts occurs from the molecular to ecosystem
scale
• Quantification is by controlled testing and
comparisons
• “Omics” technologies are not yet mature
• Mixtures are difficult

Mark Hodson, Soil pollution and its impact on soil life 34