Biochar as a carbon-rich highly porous substance has been proposed for use in agriculture and horticulture as a soil amendment. One of the main concerns of this application of biochar is its potential contamination with heavy metals (HMs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The aim of this research was to access the environmental risk of biochar used as a soil amendment on soil mesofauna (mites and springtails). We conducted both field and laboratory experiments with the use of wood-chip biochar from low-temperature (300 °C) flash pyrolysis. Biochar was free from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and the concentration of all tested toxic compounds was very low or even under the level of detection. Both the results of field and laboratory studies show no toxic effects on soil mesofauna. In the field studies, the biochar application of 50 t/ha in maize and oilseed rape crops significantly increased the mean number of mesofauna. This change probably resulted from improved soil chemical properties (in particular organic carbon content and cation exchange capacity) upon biochar addition. The results of the avoidance test with the use of springtail species
Folsomia candida
showed the possible short-term toxicity risk from a dose of 5%. The results of the reproduction test indicate the negative response of
F. candida
from the rate of 25% (higher than the field dose, which corresponds to 10% in laboratory tests). The reason for the short-term toxicity might be the considerable increase in soil pH after biochar addition. To our knowledge, this is the first study that has looked so widely into the effect of biochar on soil mesofauna. We encourage further studies into the risk assessment of biochar on soil organisms in both a controlled laboratory environment and in the open field.
In the southern part of Poland, ground beetle fauna was studied in the first large-scale Bt maize experiment. The aim of this study was to determine the long term impact of the Bt maize cultivar in comparison to conventional plants, on selected non-target arthropods. The DKC 3421 YG cultivar (Bt maize) and the respective isogenic non-Bt varieties (DKC 3420) were cultivated at two locations: (a) Budziszów near Wrocław and in Głuchów near Rzeszów in the south-eastern region of Poland, in the 2008-2010 growing seasons. For comparative analysis, two additional non-Bt cultivars sprayed with a lambda-cyhalotrine insecticide were also included. To monitor population density of surface-active invertebrates of the Carabidae family, eighty pitfall traps were used at each location. The average number of ground beetle populations in the Bt-maize cultivar DKC 3421 YG did not significantly differ from the number of beetles in the conventional ones. Significant differences between the number of beetles occurred on individual dates only. Usually, these differences related to the considerably smaller total number of beetles in the whole replication. Probably, the variation in the number of beetles was caused by climatic factors or the terrain layout, therefore it cannot be related to the cultivar effect.
Rare carnivorous plants representing the genus Sarracenia are perceived as very interesting to scientists involved in various fields of botany, ethnobotany, entomology, phytochemistry and others. Such high interest is caused mainly by the unique capacity of Sarracenia spp. to attract insects. Therefore, an attempt to develop a protocol for micropropagation of the Sarracenia alata (Alph.Wood) Alph.Wood, commonly named yellow trumpets, and to identify the specific chemical composition of volatile compounds of this plant in vitro and ex vivo was undertaken. Thus, the chemical volatile compounds excreted by the studied plant to attract insects were recognized with the application of the headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with the GC-MS technique. As the major volatile compounds (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol (16.48% ± 0.31), (E)-3-hexen-1-ol acetate (19.99% ± 0.01) and β-caryophyllene (11.30% ± 0.27) were identified. Further, both the chemical assumed to be responsible for attracting insects, i.e., pyridine (3.10% ± 0.07), and whole plants were used in in vivo bioassays with two insect species, namely Drosophila hydei and Acyrthosiphon pisum. The obtained results bring a new perspective on the possibilities of cultivating rare carnivorous plants in vitro since they are regarded as a valuable source of bioactive volatile compounds, as including ones with repellent or attractant activity.
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