Biomass estimation of the terrestrial ecotoxicological species Folsomia candida (Collembola) using a real-time polymerase chain reaction.

The abundance and growth of the Folsomia candida soil arthropod have been widely used to assess the environmental impact of a range of soil pollutants, and increasing concerns about environmental pollution require advanced and rapid methods to estimate ecological toxicity. Here, we developed a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based assay for determining the biomass of F. candida.