Abstract
A field study was conducted over 2 yr to determine the effects of transgenic sweet corn containing a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) on the diversity and abundance of nontarget arthropods. The Bt hybrid (expressing Cry1Ab endotoxin for lepidopteran control) was compared with near-isogenic non-Bt and Bt hybrids treated with a foliar insecticide and with a near-isogenic non-Bt hybrid without insecticides. Plant inspections, sticky cards, and pitfall traps were used to sample a total of 573,672 arthropods, representing 128 taxonomic groups in 95 families and 18 orders. Overall biodiversity and community-level responses were not significantly affected by the transgenic hybrid. The Bt hybrid also had no significant adverse effects on population densities of specific nontarget herbivores, decomposers, and natural enemies enumerated at the family level during the crop cycle. As expected, the insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin had broad negative impacts on the abundance of many nontarget arthropods. One insecticide application in the Bt plots reduced the overall abundance of the natural enemy community by 21-48%. Five applications in the non-Bt plots reduced natural enemy communities by 33-70%. Nontarget communities affected in the insecticide-treated Bt plots exhibited some recovery, but communities exposed to five applications showed no trends toward recovery during the crop cycle. This study clearly showed that the nontarget effects of Bt transgenic sweet corn on natural enemies and other arthropods were minimal and far less than the community-level disruptions caused by lambda-cyhalothrin.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by-nc. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
The Bt hybrid did not significantly affect overall arthropod biodiversity or community responses.
- Taxon
- sweet cornt0
- Treatment
- transgenic hybride0
- Outcome
- Overall biodiversity and community-level responsese0
- Direction
- not significantly affectede0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Overall biodiversity and community-level responses were not significantly affected by the transgenic hybrid.”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
The Bt hybrid had no significant adverse effects on nontarget herbivore, decomposer and natural enemy densities.
- Taxon
- sweet cornt0
- Treatment
- Bt hybride0
- Outcome
- population densities of specific nontarget herbivores, decomposers, and natural enemiese0
- Direction
- no significant adverse effectse0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“The Bt hybrid also had no significant adverse effects on population densities of specific nontarget herbivores, decomposers, and natural enemies”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Lambda-cyhalothrin negatively affected abundance of many nontarget arthropods.
- Taxon
- sweet cornt0
- Treatment
- lambda-cyhalothrine0
- Outcome
- abundance of many nontarget arthropodse0
- Direction
- negative impactse0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“the insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin had broad negative impacts on the abundance of many nontarget arthropods”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
One insecticide application in Bt plots reduced natural enemy abundance by 21-48%.
- Taxon
- sweet cornt0
- Treatment
- One insecticide application in the Bt plotse0
- Outcome
- overall abundance of the natural enemy communitye0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 21-48%e0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“One insecticide application in the Bt plots reduced the overall abundance of the natural enemy community by 21-48%.”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Five applications in non-Bt plots reduced natural enemy communities by 33-70%.
- Taxon
- sweet cornt0
- Treatment
- Five applications in the non-Bt plotse0
- Outcome
- natural enemy communitiese0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 33-70%e0
Not reportedComparator
Verbatim
e0“Five applications in the non-Bt plots reduced natural enemy communities by 33-70%.”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Affected communities in insecticide-treated Bt plots showed some recovery.
Verbatim
e0“Nontarget communities affected in the insecticide-treated Bt plots exhibited some recovery”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Communities exposed to five applications showed no recovery trend during the crop cycle.
Verbatim
e0“communities exposed to five applications showed no trends toward recovery during the crop cycle”
t0“Sweet Corn”
Claim · model-written summary
Bt corn nontarget effects were minimal and much less than lambda-cyhalothrin disruptions.
Verbatim
e0“the nontarget effects of Bt transgenic sweet corn on natural enemies and other arthropods were minimal and far less than the community-level disruptions caused by lambda-cyhalothrin”
The same questions in other papers
lambda-cyhalothrin · pest · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
3 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
transgenic · pest · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
18 papers in the same direction as this paper · 22 in the opposite direction
- positive
- no effect
- no effect
37 papers more in this group
See all 41 papers →insecticide · pest · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
13 papers in the same direction as this paper · 48 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
- positive
58 papers more in this group
See all 62 papers →transgenic · ecology: diversity · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
12 papers in the same direction as this paper
- no effect
- no effect
- no effect
9 papers more in this group
See all 13 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.