For an efficient and reasonable management scheme for protecting the soil environment, a soil ecological risk assessment (ERA) method should be developed prior to utilization, based on the contemporary uses and situations of each country. The Korean environmental policy focusing on soil protection is currently accelerating the development of the soil ecological risk assessment method. The soil ERA requires toxicological data on various trophic levels in the soil environment, and ultimately uses PNEC (Predicted No Effect Concentration), which is derived from collected toxicological data. Therefore, test species that are used to generate toxicity data are essential for conducting reliable ERA. This study aimed to select domestic test species for potential use in a reliable Korean ERA. Copper (Cu) and Nickel (Ni) were identified as target substances, with toxicity data (Cu, Ni) and standard test methods being collected to determine candidate species. The candidate species were first classified by soil trophic level, and then sorted into final domestic species. Forty out of 166 domestic species were determined as potential standard test species, whereas 17 out of 120 species were determined as potential Cu and Ni test species. Finally, this study presented potential soil test species based on the characteristics of the domestic soil environment, and established a preliminary step toward developing a reliable Korean soil ERA method.