Crop dominance exerts specific effects on foliage‐dwelling arthropods in Bacillus thuringiensis cotton. (11th December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Bing; Ouyang, Fang; Parajulee, Megha; Ge, Feng
• Is Part Of: Agricultural and forest entomology. Volume 17:Number 3(2015:Aug.)
• Page Start: 225
• Page End: 238
• Publication Date: 2014-12-11
• Subjects: Insect pests -- Control -- Periodicals; Agricultural pests -- Control -- Periodicals; Forest insects -- Control -- Periodicals; 632.7
• DOI: 10.1111/afe.12095
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-9555

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="afe12095-abs-0001"> <title>Abstract</title> <p id="afe12095-para-0001"> <list id="afe12095-list-0001" list-type="order"> <list-item> <p>Shifts in crop composition in an agro‐ecosystem may have profound effects on plant‐associated arthropods.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>The widespread adoption of transgenic insect‐resistant cotton expressing insecticidal toxins <italic>Cry1A</italic> from <italic>Bacillus thuringiensis</italic> (<italic>Bt</italic>) has caused a dramatic shift in agricultural landscapes over the last 15 years, thus raising concerns about the potential impacts of <italic>Bt</italic> crops on nontarget organisms worldwide.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>The potential effect of crop composition shift as a result of the increasing acreage of <italic>Bt</italic> cotton on an arthropod community was assessed at three levels (0%, 75% and 100%) of <italic>Bt</italic> dominance in a 2‐year field trial in northern China.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>Three findings confirmed that the arthropod assemblage of a certain field was influenced by crop composition and its developmental stage: (i) the proportion of <italic>Bt</italic> cotton in the crop mixture consistently affected the abundance of pests, natural enemies and total arthropods; (ii) bootstrap methods demonstrated significant effects of <italic>Bt</italic> cotton on species richness, diversity and evenness; and (iii) non‐metric multidimensional scaling analysis showed that the arthropod community of a certain agricultural ecosystem varied with crop composition and plant developmental stage.</p> </list-item> <list-item> <p>The findings of the present study may have significant implications for cotton pest management with respect to transgenic <italic>Bt</italic> cotton, highlighting the potential of conservation biological control via the combination of an appropriate crop genetic ratio and timely chemical control.</p> </list-item> </list> </p> </abstract>