Mercury is of major concern because of health and environmental problems that they cause. This toxic pollutant is particularly prevalent in tropical Amazonian regions and in French Guiana where soils are naturally rich in mercury and past and present gold mining activities occurred. While many studies have shown the impact of mercury in aquatic environments, to our knowledge only a few have focused on terrestrial ecosystems, where mercury is predominantly found. This doctoral research examined the interactions between earthworms, which are soil engineers, and mercury in a tropical soil from French Guiana. The objectives of the research were to: i) evaluate in situ earthworm diversity and distribution in soils related to mercury concentrations, ii) evaluate experimentally the impact of mercury on a tropical earthworm species present in our study site, and iii) evaluate the impact of earthworms on mercury mobility and availability in different soils. In order to achieve these objectives, three studies were conducted using natural tropical soils (oxisols and hydromorphic soils) and tropical earthworms sampled in a small catchment basin located near Cacao, in French Guiana. In the first part, earthworms were collected in the field using the standard TSBF method, and species delimitation was done based on DNA barcoding. Putative species were then morphologically identified, among them Pontoscolex corethrurus, a pantropical and peregrine species. Furthermore, soil characteristics and mercury concentrations were determined, and a first attempt was made to explain earthworm distribution in the field. P. corethrurus was found only in the oxisol, which contained highest mercury concentrations in the field. In the second part, an ecotoxicological study was done using a natural tropical soil in order to assess the impact of mercury on the identified tropical species: P. corethrurus. The results showed that P. corethrurus can resist up to high mercury concentrations ; it was not affected until 20 µg Hg g-1 soil and showed high capacity of Hg bioaccumulation. These results were used for the third part of the thesis. In the last part, two studies were conducted in controlled conditions in order to assess the impact of earthworms on mercury mobility and availability in soils. For these studies, conditions near natural conditions and also a high mercury concentration were applied to the soil (20 μg Hg g-1 soil). Results showed the impact of earthworm on mercury mobility and availability through different mechanisms: directly, through soil modifications (increase of soil pH and DOC), and indirectly, through stimulation of the soil microbial population. Furthermore, results confirmed the high capacity of earthworms for mercury bioaccumulation. In conclusion, we showed that (1) P. corethrurus is resistant to mercury, due to its presence in our field contaminated site and the results of the toxicity test done in the laboratory, thus confirming the use of a tropical species for these studies ; (2) mercury bioaccumulation measured in earthworms is important and thus could be responsible for its entry and biomagnification in the terrestrial food chain ; and (3) earthworms affect mercury mobility modifying its fractioning in soils and decreasing its availability
