Soil Contaminated with Glyphosate: Can Vermicompost Be Considered a Bioremediation Agent?

Abstract

The efficiency of the addition of vermicompost in relation to the decontamination of red latosol was evaluated against acute toxicity, biomass gain and reproduction of Eisenia foetida (earthworms) incubated in the contaminated soil. The soil was spiked to different concentrations of glyphosate from 96 mg kg^-1 (recommended by the manufacturer) to 10000 mg kg^-1 to simulate contamination by shedding of the herbicide. To evaluate the effect of vermicompost in the soil contaminated with 10000 mg kg^-1 glyphosate, 15 g of vermicompost, totaling 3%, was added to the soil. The incorporation of vermicompost to the soil inhibited earthworm mortality. However, even the dose of 96 mg kg^-1 presented deleterious effects on the reproduction of E. foetida. It can be concluded that the addition of vermicompost to soil contaminated with glyphosate attenuates the deleterious action of the herbicide on E. foetida.