This paper is relevant to the impact areas in the following areas:
| Crops | Cotton |
| Traits | Insect Res. (BT), Insect Resistance |
| Countries | China |
| Regions | Asia |
| Tags | food webs, non-target effects, parasitism |
Background: The on-farm deployment of genetically modified crops may negatively affect nontarget arthropods, potentially disrupting food web structure and ecosystem functions. Aphid–parasitoid interactions are well-suited to study these potential impacts in agro-ecosystems. Over the span of 8 years, we systematically compared infestation levels of the aphid Aphis gossypii, its associated parasitoid community and overall parasitism rate between transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton and nontransgenic cotton. Furthermore, we measured the impact of transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton on structural traits and interspecies interactions within quantitative aphid–parasitoid food webs.
Results: Transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton did not affect the abundance of aphids and parasitoids, or in-field parasitism rates. Despite weak interannual variability, transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton also did not alter food web architecture or biological control services.
Conclusions: Our work not only elucidates the impact of transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton on different nontarget arthropods (i.e. aphids, parasitoids, hyperparasitoids) and their associated ecosystem services or disservices, but also diversifies the ecological risk assessment toolbox for transgenic insecticidal crops. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.
Transgenic Cry1Ac + CpTI cotton does not compromise parasitoid-mediated biological control: An eight-year case study (held on an external server, and so may require additional authentication details)
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