Chronic effects of clothianidin to non-target soil invertebrates: Ecological risk assessment using the species sensitivity distribution (SSD) approach.

Abstract This study aimed to assess the chronic toxicity and risk of clothianidin in a seed dressing formulation to non-target soil invertebrates. The toxicity assays were performed with two oligochaetes (earthworms Eisenia andrei and enchytraeids Enchytraeus crypticus) and three collembolans (Folsomia candida, Proisotoma minuta and Sinella curviseta) species following ISO protocols. Risk assessment (via Hazard Quotient approach – HQ) was based on the hazardous concentrations for 95% of the species (HC5), derived from chronic Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD) for clothianidin, and on its predicted environmental concentrations (PEC). Four SSD scenarios were generated with literature and/or this study data, following different data selection criteria (i.e., general, only data from tests using similar formulations, similar soils, or identical soil/formulation). In our experiments, a higher clothianidin toxicity (EC50-based) was found for collembolans (varying from 0.11 to 0.28 mg kg−1 between species) followed by the earthworms (4.35 mg kg−1), while the enchytraeids were the least sensitive (33.5 mg kg−1). HQ indicated a significant risk of clothianidin to soil invertebrates because the estimated PEC were at least 16.6 times higher than HC5 and are expected to affect the whole group of collembolans. Despite the criteria for data inclusion have influenced the HC5 values, no substantial changes were observed for the risk outcomes. To our knowledge, this is the first study assessing the chronic ecological risk of clothianidin to beneficial soil fauna based on a probabilistic SSD approach. Data from this study can help to derive more reliable protection thresholds for clothianidin in soils.