The diversity, estimated richness and abundance of terrestrial insect communities were examined along a stress gradient of past pollution in the region of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. This gradient represents the natural recovery and lingering effects of a decommissioned copper–nickel smelting complex. Ant genera and sixteen higher taxonomic groups (family and order) had the highest abundance at the sites with intermediate stress. Eight families increased in abundance with distance from the decommissioned source of pollution and eleven families decreased reflecting a complex response of diversity to pollution. Carabid beetles show an increase in diversity further from the smelter; however, examination of the species composition reveals a distinct carabid community closest to the smelter, emphasizing the unique habitat created by severe pollution. Although almost forty years since decomissioning of the smelter complex, the terrestrial insect community in the vicinity remains significantly impacted suggesting slow recovery.

We assessed dietary exposure of the little owl Athene noctua to trace metal contamination in a Dutch Rhine River floodplain area. Diet composition was calculated per month for three habitat types, based on the population densities of six prey types (earthworms, ground beetles and four small mammal species) combined with the little owl’s functional response to these prey types. Exposure levels showed a strong positive relationship with the dietary fraction of earthworms, but also depended on the dietary fraction of common voles, with higher common vole fractions resulting in decreasing exposure levels. Spatio-temporal changes in the availability of earthworms and common voles in particular resulted in considerable variation in exposure, with peaks in exposure exceeding a tentative toxicity threshold. These findings imply that wildlife exposure assessments based on a predefined, average diet composition may considerably underestimate local or intermittent peaks in exposure.

We studied the short- and medium-term effects of experimental nitrogen fertilization (3 and 15 months after the treatment) on the arthropods of Calluna vulgaris heathlands in NW Spain. Three heathland sites were selected with two permanent plots per site: control and fertilized. Ammonium nitrate fertilizer (56 kg N ha-1 yr-1) was applied monthly and insects were caught using pitfall traps. We found mainly species-level responses to nitrogen addition. Seven species (e.g. Lochmaea suturalis) showed a consistent trend (benefited or harmed) in both periods and were proposed as possible reliable indicators of the effects of nitrogen deposition in these ecosystems. We also found variable arthropod trophic-group responses: (a) herbivores (leaf beetles, true bugs) increased in abundance on a short-term scale; (b) predators (carabid beetles, true bugs) showed opposite and less clear responses in both periods. Further long-term studies are needed to determine the mechanisms underlying the observed arthropod responses. We observed consistent species-level and variable trophic-group responses to nitrogen addition in one of the southern-most locations for Calluna vulgaris heathlands within Europe.

Survival of organisms in polluted habitats is a key factor regarding their long-term population persistence. To avoid harmful physiological effects of pollutants’ accumulation in organisms, decontamination and excretion could be effective mechanisms. Among invertebrates, ground beetles are reliable indicators of environmental pollution. Published results, however, are inconsistent, as some studies showed effective decontamination and excretion of pollutants, while others demonstrated severe toxic symptoms due to extreme accumulation. Using ground beetles as model organisms, we tested our pollution intensity-dependent disposal hypothesis for five pollutants (Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb, and Zn) among four soil pollution intensity levels (low, moderate, high, and extreme) by categorical meta-analysis on published data. According to our hypothesis, decontamination and excretion of pollutants in ground beetles are effective in lowly or moderately polluted habitats, while disposal is ineffective in highly or extremely polluted ones, contributing to intense accumulation of pollutants in ground beetles. In accordance with the hypothesis, we found that in an extremely polluted habitat, accumulation of Cd and Pb in ground beetles was significantly higher than in lowly polluted ones. These findings may suggest the entomoremediation potential of ground beetles in an extremely polluted environment.

Overreliance on the same herbicide mode of action leads to the spread of resistant weeds, which cancels the advantages of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops. Here, the objective was to quantify, with simulations, the impact of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds on crop production and weed-related wild biodiversity in HT maize-based cropping systems differing in terms of management practices. We (1) simulated current conventional and probable HT cropping systems in two European regions, Aquitaine and Catalonia, with the weed dynamics model FLORSYS; (2) quantified how much the presence of GR weeds contributed to weed impacts on crop production and biodiversity; (3) determined the effect of cultural practices on the impact of GR weeds and (4) identified which species traits most influence weed-impact indicators. The simulation study showed that during the analysed 28 years, the advent of glyphosate resistance had little effect on plant biodiversity. Glyphosate-susceptible populations and species were replaced by GR ones. Including GR weeds only affected functional biodiversity (food offer for birds, bees and carabids) and weed harmfulness when weed effect was initially low; when weed effect was initially high, including GR weeds had little effect. The GR effect also depended on cultural practices, e.g. GR weeds were most detrimental for species equitability when maize was sown late. Species traits most harmful for crop production and most beneficial for biodiversity were identified, using RLQ analyses. None of the species presenting these traits belonged to a family for which glyphosate resistance was reported. An advice table was built; the effects of cultural practices on crop production and biodiversity were synthesized, explained, quantified and ranked, and the optimal choices for each management technique were identified.

Ultrastructure alterations in spermiogenesis of the ground beetle, Blaps sulcata (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) were studied in normal adult males and in two male groups irradiated by gamma rays of 3 and 16 μSv/h dose rate. Ultrastructure examination of irradiated sperms revealed many alterations both in the head and in the flagellum regions of mature sperm. Alterations of the head region included nuclei with uncondensed chromatin materials and irregular nuclear envelope. Abnormal flagella contained malformed mitochondrial derivatives and damaged axonemes in addition to the absence of accessory bodies. Bi- and multi-flagellate sperms (with two, three, and four axonemes) were the most common alterations. Sperm cells with residual bodies were also obtained. Agglutinated sperms and sperms with enlarged and/or vacuolated cytoplasm were common. Sperm abnormalities were more pronounced in males irradiated by 16 μSv/h dose rate than those irradiated by 3 μSv/h. Spermiogenesis alterations induced by irradiation of B. sulcata may be used as a monitoring model for predicting the effects of environmental radioactivity.

Soil pollution in Egypt became far more serious than before due to either the heavy usage of different toxic pesticides or aerosol deposition of industrial pollutants. The present mentioned ground beetle, Blaps polycresta Tschinkel 1975 (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), showed ecological, morphological, and histological alterations in adult insects as biomonitors. Two cultivated sites (reference and polluted) were chosen for sampling the insects. The results indicated a significant increase in soil cadmium concentration of the polluted site leading to sex-specific difference in cadmium accumulation in gonads and alimentary canal of insects that being higher in males than females. The cadmium pollution leads significantly to a decrease in population density, a reduction in body weight, an increase in mortality rate, and an increase in sex ratio of the insects. The results also revealed a striking decrease in body length of the polluted insects with a marked increase in the percentage of deformed gonads and alimentary canal of both sexes. Some histopathological alterations were also recorded in testis, ovary, and midgut of the polluted insects. Our results confirmed that beetles are a good bioindicator for soil pollution, and the different studied parameters could be easily employed as sensitive monitors for cadmium soil pollution.

Behavioral ecotoxicology has become very important in the short time since a change in behavior is very often the first response to environmental altered conditions. We investigated the influence of trace metal intake on the spatial orientation performances of the carabid beetle Parallelomorphus laevigatus, fundamental ability for its survival. The aim of this study was to consider the solar orientation as behavioral biomarker for exposure to trace metal contamination. Therefore, we tested the ability of solar orientation of specimens of this species, fed with shrimps contaminated with three different concentrations of Cu, Zn, or Hg. We carried out the orientation tests after 1, 3, 7, and 10 days of contaminated feeding. Subsequently, we fed these beetles with not contaminated shrimps and again tested them after 1, 3, 7, and 10 days. For all three metals considered and, regardless of the degree of contamination of the food, we have found a progressive and significant counterclockwise displacement of the angle of orientation and a corresponding progressive reduction in the precision in the directional choices by the animals. We also noticed a clear growing recovery in the normal orientation by these insects after returning to their feeding with uncontaminated food. In conclusion, we can consider the orientation in space of P. laevigatus as a behavioral biomarker for exposure to trace metal contamination. We believe that the intake of trace metals may induce the insects to make mistakes in their spatial orientation, due to an acceleration of their biological clock. Such a clock malfunction is not definitive, since the return to a normal diet restores P. laevigatus the ability to re-make the correct directional choices. Ultimately, our results confirm the usefulness of behavioral ecotoxicology investigations; moreover, they stimulate the opportunity to deepen the understanding of functioning of the biological clock in the animals.

Shifting cultivation (jhum) is a major land use practice in Mizoram. It was considered as an eco-friendly and efficient method when the cycle duration was long (15–30 years), but it poses the problem of land degradation and threat to ecology when shortened (4–5 years) due to increased intensification of farming systems. Studying beetle community structure is very helpful in understanding how shifting cultivation affects the biodiversity features compared to natural forest system. The present study examines the beetle species diversity and estimates the effects of shifting cultivation practices on the beetle assemblages in relation to change in tree species composition and soil nutrients. Scarabaeidae and Carabidae were observed to be the dominant families in the land use systems studied. Shifting cultivation practice significantly (P < 0.05) affected the beetle and tree species diversity as well as the soil nutrients as shown by univariate (one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation and regression, diversity indices) and multivariate (cluster analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), canonical variate analysis (CVA), permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA), permutational multivariate analysis of dispersion (PERMDISP)) statistical analyses. Besides changing the tree species composition and affecting the soil fertility, shifting cultivation provides less suitable habitat conditions for the beetle species. Bioindicator analysis categorized the beetle species into forest specialists, anthropogenic specialists (shifting cultivation habitat specialist), and habitat generalists. Molecular analysis of bioindicator beetle species was done using mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) marker to validate the beetle species and describe genetic variation among them in relation to heterogeneity, transition/transversion bias, codon usage bias, evolutionary distance, and substitution pattern. The present study revealed the fact that shifting cultivation practice significantly affects the beetle species in terms of biodiversity pattern as well as evolutionary features. Spatiotemporal assessment of soil–plant–beetle interactions in shifting cultivation system and their influence in land degradation and ecology will be helpful in making biodiversity conservation decisions in the near future.