Impact of Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles on Survivability and Reproduction of Earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae and Its Compost Quality

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2 NPs) are lanthanide element oxides widely used in industrial processes and their extensive application led to environmental toxicity. Recently, CeO2 NPs have gained great attention by researchers due to their eco-toxicological effects. In the current study, CeO2 NPs were synthesized using the ultra-sonication method and the formation was confirmed by XRD, FT-IR, and SEM analysis. The study focussed on the, interaction between toxicity of CeO2 NPs with hypersensitive vermicomposting earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae were performed. The influence of its toxicity on mortality, reproductive potential, biochemical parameters, genotoxicity by comet assay, and physicochemical and microbial analysis of vermicompost were examined under laboratory conditions. On the 45th day, the experimentation showed 100% viability in all the experiments (0.5g, 1.0g, and 5.0g of CeO2) but the reduction in biomass of E. eugeniae (4.62 +/- 0.02) in 5g of CeO2 NPs was observed. Comet assay indicated that severe DNA damage in earthworms treated with 5g CeO2 NPs due to the the impact of CeO2 NPs. The nutrient content and microbial population significantly varied in the vermicompost.