Chromated copper arsenate (CCA), type C, was largely used as a wood preservative due to its exceptional fungicidal and insecticidal properties. Although this treatment was prohibited for residential purposes in Canada and in the United-States of America, concerns about CCA-treated wood focus on the possible threat on human health and the contamination of the environment, through the leaching of metals from existing structures. The objectives of this thesis are (1) to assess the effects of metals leached from CCA- and ACQ-treated wood on the survival, the growth and the reproductive success of the earthworm Eisenia fetida (Annelida, Oligochaeta), and (2) to evaluate if annetocin, a neuropeptide linked to reproduction, could be used as a biomarker of ecotoxicological responses of the worm E. fetida when exposed to metals from the CCA treatment. Ecotoxicological tests with E. fetida were carried out according to the protocol ISO-11268-2. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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