structural:reformatting, structural:expansion
Ecotoxicology laboratory animals

Springtails are currently used in laboratory tests for the early detection of soil pollution. Acute and chronic toxicity tests have been performed by researchers, mostly using the parthenogenetic isotomid Folsomia candida. These tests have been standardized. Details on a ringtest, on the biology and ecotoxicology of Folsomia candida and comparison with the sexual nearby species Folsomia fimetaria (sometimes preferred to Folsomia candida) are given in a document written by Paul Henning Krogh. Care should be taken that different strains of the same species may be conducive to different results. Avoidance tests have been also performed. They have been standardized, too. Avoidance tests are complementary to toxicity tests, but they also offer several advantages: they are more rapid (thus cheaper), more sensitive and they are environmentally more reliable, because in the real world Collembola move actively far from pollution spots. It may be hypothesized that the soil could become locally depauperated in animals (and thus improper to normal use) while below thresholds of toxicity. Contrary to earthworms, and like many insects and molluscs, Collembola are very sensitive to herbicides and thus are threatened in no-tillage agriculture, which makes a more intense use of herbicides than conventional agriculture. The springtail Folsomia candida is also becoming a genomic model organism for soil toxicology. With microarray technology the expression of thousands of genes can be measured in parallel. The gene expression profiles of Folsomia candida exposed to environmental toxicants allow fast and sensitive detection of pollution, and additionally clarifies molecular mechanisms causing toxicology.

Collembola have been found to be useful as bio-indicators of soil quality. Laboratory studies have been conducted that validated that the jumping ability of springtails can be used to evaluate the soil quality of Cu- and Ni-polluted sites.