Effect of Bt Rice Residues on Arthropods During Postharvest Seasons

Most studies assessing the risk of Bt crops on non-target organisms are usually focused on crops during cropping seasons and very few dealt with the effects on postharvest seasons. Thus, Yo-Tu Bai of Southwest University in China, together with other researchers, assessed the field response of aboveground non-target arthropod communities to Bt rice plant residues in postharvest seasons. They conducted two field trials wherein pitfall traps were made to get samples of arthropods from fields with non-Bt and Bt rice plants.

On both trials, there were abundant arthropods collected but the types of arthropods collected were varied. A total of 52,386 individual insects and spiders belonging to 93 different families were collected during the two trials. Majority of the samples were detritus feeders (91.9%), followed by predators (4.2%), herbivores (3.2%), and parasitoids (0.7%).

The researchers did not find any significant differences in the community characteristics of arthropods from non-Bt and Bt rice-planted fields, on both field trials. These findings imply that Bt rice is safe to non-target arthropod communities in Chinese rice ecosystems.

Get more details about this study from http://www.springerlink.com/content/a24j84423r0h5101/.