Environmental Entomology (2016) 45, 518-525

Zengbin Lu, Cong Dang, Naishun Han, Zhicheng Shen, Yufa Peng, David Stanley and Gongyin Ye (2016)
The new transgenic cry1Ab/vip3H rice poses no unexpected ecological risks to arthropod communities in rice agroecosystems
Environmental Entomology 45 (2), 518-525
Abstract: The ecological risks to nontarget organisms should be rigorously assessed before Bt crops are released. Here, the impacts of a new Cry1Ab/Vip3H rice line on arthropod communities in rice agroecosystems were evaluated across 3 yr. Arthropods collected via vacuum were sorted into five guilds. The abundance and proportion of each guild as well as community-level parameters were determined in Cry1Ab/Vip3H and control rice fields. Changes in arthropod species assemblage over sampling dates were investigated by principal response curves (PRCs). Cry1Ab/Vip3H rice did not exert significant impacts on the seasonal density and proportion of each guild, except parasitoids. Detritivore seasonal density, but not its relative abundance, was significantly affected by Cry1Ab/Vip3H rice. Four community indices (species richness S, Shannon–Wiener index H ', Simpson index D, and evenness index J' ) were similar between rice types. PRCs revealed a slight community difference between rice types in the past two tested years, with rice types accounting for 1.0–3.5% of the variance among arthropod communities. However, sampling dates explain 32.1–67.6% for these community differences. Of the 46 taxa with higher species weights, 26.1% of the taxa were significantly different, including seven taxa with higher abundance and five with lower density in Cry1Ab/Vip3H rice fields. These differences may be attributed to change in abundance of prey or hosts but not to direct effects of Bt proteins. We infer that this new Cry1Ab/Vip3H rice line poses no unintended ecological risks to the arthropod community.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Zhicheng Shen, Gong-Yin Ye

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
non-target effects/fate in environm.

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1A/Vip-toxin (entomopathogen)