Study of the effect of earthworm Lumbricus terrestris on the speciation of heavy metals in soils

Evaluation of the effect of earthworm Lumbricus terrestris on the speciation of copper and cadmium was carried out on two types of soils with a high metallic contamination due to municipal wastes spreading. The concentrations of total dissolved metals were higher in the soil containing earthworms. This increase was larger for the soil submitted to disturbance by earthworms for a long time (3 months). The main chemical species in the lixiviates of all type of soils including controls, were labile forms of cadmium with 52 to 87% and stable forms of copper which represents 67 to 95% of total concentration of dissolved metal. In the solid phase, there was a slight transfer of cadmium and copper from the oxidizable fraction into the exchangeable and acid soluble fractions. This suggests that soil disturbance by earthworms increases the mobility of these metals particularly cadmium On the contrary copper appears in lixiviates as non labile organic complexes. Analysis of the whole results showed differences between soils as regards the mobility of the metals studied, which reflected the role of the mains physico-chemical characteristics (pH, C.E.C. and total calcareous content).