In this study, the effects of zinc nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) and ions (ZnCl₂) on the mortality, growth, maturation, and cellular respiration of the earthworm Eisenia andrei were assessed. Earthworms were individually exposed for 98 days, starting from the juvenile stage, to soils contaminated with either ZnO-NPs or ZnCl₂ (125, 250, 500 and 1000 mg Zn kg⁻¹ dry weight (dw)). Exposure to the highest-concentration ionic treatments (500 and 1000 mg kg⁻¹) caused 100% mortality, while for other treatments, mortality did not exceed 15% at the end of exposure. Compared to the control treatment, both 125–1000 mg kg⁻¹ ZnO-NPs and 125 or 250 mg kg⁻¹ ZnCl₂ stimulated earthworm growth, which might be due to a hormetic effect. ZnO-NPs and ZnCl₂ caused different responses at medium Zn concentrations (250 and 500 mg kg⁻¹): earthworms exposed to ionic treatment at 250 mg kg⁻¹ were characterized by a significantly lower growth constant, lower cellular respiration rate, later inflection point, and higher final body weight than those exposed to ZnO-NPs treatments at the same (250 mg kg⁻¹) or twice as high (500 mg kg⁻¹) nominal Zn concentrations. However, differences were not observed in all examined parameters between the studied forms when the highest-concentration ZnO-NPs treatment was compared with the lowest-concentration ionic treatment, which was likely due to the same levels of available Zn concentrations in those treatments. Overall, different growth and maturation strategies accompanied by pronounced differences in cellular respiration were adopted by earthworms exposed to low and medium levels of either ZnO-NPs or ZnCl₂.

在这项研究中，评估了锌纳米颗粒（ZnO-NPs）和离子（ZnCl ₂）对worm Eisenia andrei的死亡率，生长，成熟和细胞呼吸的影响。从幼年期开始，individually分别暴露于受ZnO-NPs或ZnCl ₂（125、250、500和1000 mg Zn kg ^-1干重（dw））污染的土壤中98天。暴露于最高浓度的离子处理（500和1000 mg kg ^-1）可导致100％的死亡率，而其他处理则在暴露结束时死亡率不超过15％。与对照处理相比，125–1000 mg kg ^-1 ZnO-NP和125或250 mg kg ^-1 ZnCl ₂刺激earth的生长，这可能是由于毒副作用。ZnO-NP和ZnCl ₂在中等Zn浓度（250和500 mg kg ^-1）下引起不同的响应：:在250 mg kg ^-1的条件下接受离子处理的特点是生长常数明显降低，细胞呼吸速率降低，后期弯曲点，并且最终体重比在相同（250 mg kg ^-1）或高（500 mg kg ^-1）的情况下暴露于ZnO-NPs处理的人更高）锌的名义浓度。但是，当将最高浓度的ZnO-NPs处理与最低浓度的离子处理进行比较时，研究形式之间的所有检查参数均未观察到差异，这很可能是由于这些处理中可用的锌浓度相同。总体而言，暴露于中低水平的ZnO-NPs或ZnCl _2的earth采用不同的生长和成熟策略，伴随着细胞呼吸的明显差异。