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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Southern Insect Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371020
Research Project: Integrated Insect Pest and Resistance Management on Corn, Cotton, Sorghum, Soybean, and Sweet Potato

Location: Southern Insect Management Research

Title: Use of taxonomic and trait-based approaches to evaluate the effect of Bt maize expressing the Cry1Ie protein on non-target collembola: A case study in Northeast China

Author
item WANG, BAI-FENG - Jilin Agricultural University
item WU, FENG-CI - Jilin Agricultural University
item YIN, JUN-QI - Jilin Agricultural University
item JIANG, ZHI-LEI - Jilin Agricultural University
item SONG, XIN-YUAN - Jilin Agricultural University
item Reddy, Gadi V.P.

Submitted to: Insects
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/18/2021
Publication Date: 1/21/2021
Citation: Wang, B., Wu, F., Yin, J., Jiang, Z., Song, X., Reddy, G.V. 2021. Use of taxonomic and trait-based approaches to evaluate the effect of Bt maize expressing the Cry1Ie protein on non-target collembola: A case study in Northeast China. Insects. 12(2):88. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020088.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020088

Interpretive Summary: The abundance of euedaphic and semi-edaphic collembolans did not significantly differ between the types of maize in all the sampling stages over the two consecutive years and the abundance of the epedaphic collembolan group and all the trait values were more or less lower in IE09S034 than in Zong 31 only during some stages, but these differences didn’t lasted to the ‘before growing’ stage of the following year. The collembolan diversity indexes were not significantly different in samples from Bt maize plots compared with samples from non-Bt maize plots over the two consecutive years. RDA also indicated that maize type didn’t affect collembolan community composition significantly. These results suggest that cultivation of cry1Ie maize does not affect the collembolan community in the short term. However, this was only a short-term result. In the future, more long-term monitoring work is needed to clarify how Bt crops affect the soil ecosystem, how much Bt protein enters the soil, and what other components of crop residues in the soil affect the soil fauna community.

Technical Abstract: In this study, the Bt maize line IE09S034 and its near isoline Zong 31 were selected as experimental crops, in which we investigated the effects of cry1Ie maize cultivation on collembolan species diversity and composition using taxonomic and trait-based approaches and elucidated the relationship between environmental variables and the collembolan community using redundancy analysis. The results showed that the collembolan species overall enhancement, Shannon–Wiener index, Pielou’s index, and the abundances of euedaphic and semi-edaphic collembolan groups were not significantly different in the selected maize crops, at any growth stage, over a period of two years. The abundance of the epedaphic collembolan group was significantly lower in the IE09S034 plot than that in Zong 31 during the silking and physiological maturity growth stages in 2014, and all the collembolan trait values were slightly lower in Bt maize than those in non-Bt maize in the last three sampling stages in either year, which may be correlated with the maize litter properties. The significant differences in the abundance of the epedaphic collembolan group were not found at other growth stages. Redundancy analysis showed that maize type had no significant effect on the collembolan community composition. These results suggest that cultivation of cry1Ie maize does not affect the collembolan community in short term.