Abstract:Folsomia candida is commonly used in the bioassays as a representative collembolan species because of its large proportion of biomass in edaphic ecosystems and important index creature in soil environment. This research results showed that no mortality in F. candida was found in food exposure test, and significant effects of Cu on the growth and reproduction of F. candida were observed in food exposure (Growth 21 days R2 = 0.930 2, F1,7 = 25.2, p<0.01; Reproduction: R2 = 0.945 9, F1,7 =17.2, p<0.01), and dose-effect relation models of population characteristics of F. candida against Cu in soil and food exposure were established, thus the parameters such as reproduction and growth rates were more sensitive to Cu in food exposure test than mortality. The longer exposure time was, the more significantly the growth rates reduced at high Cu exposure concentrations compared to the control during continuously monitoring (p<0.01), and the appearance of eggs delayed at the highest exposure concentrations (F1,7 = 3.69, p<0.05), suggesting that exposure time and Cu exposure concentration also had negative effect on F. candida. F.candida can accumulate Cu in high concentration when exposed to high Cu concentrations, and significant toxic effects of Cu in F. candida on the reproduction of F. candida were observed (R2 = 0.810 9, p<0.01), indicating F. candida had a high resistance to Cu, which might be reason of the significant reduction of growth and reproduction and the delay of oviposition.