Does glyphosate impact on Cu uptake by, and toxicity to, the earthworm Eisenia fetida ?

Glyphosate (GPS) is a wildly-used pesticide throughout the world. It affects metal behaviors in soil–water system as its functional groups such as amine, carboxylate and phosphonate can react with metal ions to form metal complexes. The reaction will result in the decreasing of heavy metal bioavailability. A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the interactions between GPS and copper (Cu) on the acute toxicity of soil invertebrate earthworm ( Eisenia fetida ), which was exposed to aqueous solutions for 48 h with different mixing concentrations of Cu and GPS (technical-grade Gly acid). The mortality rates, Cu uptake by earthworm, and some biomarkers such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, glutathione (GSH) content, and acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activity were measured. The mortality rates and whole-worm metal burdens increased significantly with the increasing Cu concentration in solution. However, toxicity of GPS to earthworms was not observed in this study. Furthermore, the presence of GPS could significantly reduce the acute toxicity of Cu to earthworms. The mortality rates decreased sharply and the uptake of Cu was nearly halted in the presence of GPS. In addition, the SOD activity, GSH content, and AchE activity almost declined to the levels of the control. These results demonstrate that GPS could control the toxicity as well as the bioavailability of heavy metals in soil solutions where both GPS and heavy metals often coexist.