Long-term responses of snails exposed to cadmium-contaminated soils in a partial life-cycle experiment

Juvenile snails were exposed during their growth period to Cd-contaminated field and artificial soils and then transferred to uncontaminated soil to assess the sequels of previous exposure on adult reproduction. Growth modelling highlighted growth inhibitions of 5% and 10% after 70 and 84 days of exposure to 20 and 100 mg Cd kg−1 in artificial soils, respectively. Growth disruption was accompanied by a decrease in the clutch number and a 4-week delay in the egg-laying cycle. Although it was also contaminated at 20 mg Cd kg−1, the contaminated field soil did not lead to detectable effects in snails, suggesting a lower Cd bioavailability confirmed by the bioaccumulation analysis. We demonstrated that the 28-day growth test, as advised by the ISO-guideline, may not be sufficient to assess sublethal toxic effects of realistically contaminated soils. For this purpose, a life cycle experimental set-up is proposed, allowing a thorough assessment of toxicity during successive life stages.