Research progress on toxicological effects of pesticides on earthworms

Pesticides inevitably enter the soil environment through droplet splash drift, pesticide packaging residue, pesticide processing leakage, and organism excretion during the application and bring potential environmental risks to soil organisms. As the main biological group in the soil, earthworms are the model organism for assessing the risk of pesticide toxicity. Based on the current research on the toxicological effects of pesticides on earthworms, this review summarized the ways that pesticides were used to enter the soil, the residues of pesticides in the soil, and the enrichment and elimination behaviors of pesticides in earthworms. The toxic effects of pesticides on earthworms, including growth and reproductive toxicity, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, genotoxicity, and oxidative stress were generalized. The latest progresses in transcriptomics, metabonomics and microbiomics in revealing the mechanism of pesticide-induced earthworm toxicity were emphatically reviewed. This study will provide necessary data support for soil ecological risk assessment of pesticides, and meanwhile, provide a basis for risk management and remediation of pesticide pollution in soil.