0430481 - BC 2016 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Skoková Habuštová, Oxana - Svobodová, Zdeňka - Spitzer, Lukáš - Doležal, Petr - Hussein, Hany - Sehnal, František
Communities of ground-dwelling arthropods in conventional and transgenic maize: background data for the post-market environmental monitoring.
Journal of Applied Entomology. Roč. 139, 1-2 (2015), s. 31-45. ISSN 0931-2048. E-ISSN 1439-0418
Institutional support: RVO:60077344
Keywords : Bt maize * MON810 * European corn borer
Subject RIV: EH - Ecology, Behaviour
Impact factor: 1.517, year: 2015

To verify the validity of concerns about environmental safety of maize expressing insecticidal Cry toxins (referred to as Bt maize), we compared communities of ground beetles (Carabidae), rove beetles (Staphylinidae) and spiders (Araneae) in plots planted either with Bt maize cultivar YieldGard® or with the non-transgenic parental cultivar Monumental. Each cultivar was grown on 5 plots of 0.5 ha for three consecutive years. To increase the field load of Cry toxin, the fully grown maize of the first study year was shredded to small pieces that were ploughed into the soil. Arthropods were collected in pitfall traps and determined to species level. The abundance and species richness of all studied groups greatly varied over the season and between the seasons but without statistically significant differences between the Bt and non-Bt plots, except for a slightly higher number of rove beetle species on Bt plots in the second year of study. A single spider species and six ground beetle species dominated in the catches every year, whereas the set of most abundant rove beetle species changed every year. Frequently occurring species were typical for most of Europe. The total counts of ground beetles, rove beetles and spiders are proposed to serve as bioindicators in the post-market environmental monitoring (PMEM).
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0246751