Soil Insect Diversity and Abundance Following Different Fertilizer Treatments on the Loess Plateau of China

The presence of abundant and diverse communities of macro-arthropods is considered an indicator of sustainability in agroecosystems. This study was designed to investigate the effects of different fertilizer treatments on abundance and diversity of insects of arable loess soil on the Loess Plateau of China. These regimes included a control with no fertilizer addition or manure, treatments with application of mineral fertilizers （N, NK, NP, PK, NPK）, treatments with NPK in combination with organic materials such as wheat straw or maize stalk, treatments with two rates of organic manure application; and different crop rotations （Rot. 1： winter wheat summer maize; Rot.2： winter wheat summer maize soybean intercropping; and Rot.3： winter wheat or rapeseed summer maize soybean intercropping）. Soil macro-arthropods were collected from the plough layer （0-20 cm） and sorted by hand after each harvest in June and October 2001 and 2002. A total of 3 132 individuals were collected, from 7 orders and 55 families, dominated by Formicidae （61.72%） and Staphylinidae （14.24%）. The results showed that individuals and groups were significantly influenced by sampling dates, while groups were significantly influenced by the fertilization treatments. Soil insect biodiversity, as determined by the Shannon index, was significantly influenced by fertilization and sampling dates. The abundance of soil insects was positively and significantly correlated with soil moisture content in October 2002. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers and incorporation of organic materials were favorable factors for abundance and diversity in arable loess soil.

Complete genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis Bt185, a potential soil insect biocontrol agent

Bacillus thuringiensis Bt185 and its insecticidal spectrum-expanded engineering strains are considered as potential biocontrol agents to soil insect Holotrichia parallela,Holotrichia oblita or Anomala corpulenta.Here we reported the complete genome of strain Bt185,it harbors eight plasmids,and plasmid p BT1850294 carries three cry8 genes.

The Community Abundance and Diversity of Arable Soil Insect Community Following Different Fertilizer Treatments in Xinjiang, China

The soil insect community was studied in grey desert soil district in September 2004. 90 soil samples and 100 pitfalls were collected from 10 treatments, i.e., abandonment （Aband.）, CK, N, NP, NK, PK, NPK, MNPK （fertilizer N：organic N = 3：7）, 1.5MNPK, and SNPK. 4915 soil insects （128 unknown）, as individuals belonging to 9 orders and 33 families, were obtained by pitfall traps and modified Tullgren methods. The results showed that, based on the number of individuals and groups, the macro fauna in total reached their peaks in abandonment, whereas meso and micro fauna in N and PK, respectively. Of the 10 treatments, the most dominant of soil insect composition was in MNPK and most evenness was N. The result by Kruskal-Wallis test indicated that the distribution of the arable soil insect was significantly impacted by different fertilizer treatments （X0.05（9） = 23.38, P 〈 0.005）, and soil insect group of the abandonment was significantly different from that of other fertilizer treatments. The soil insect community was divided into five groups by non-metric- MDS analysis： （1） NPK, MNPK, 1.5MNPK, CK, （2） NP and PK, （3） NK and N, （4） SNPK, and （5） abandonment, which indicated that distribution of soil insect was related to the character of the fertilizer. In the principal component analysis, two factors explained 98.51% of the total variation among the 10 treatments, and the factor one explained that N and SNPK positively affected soil insect community, whereas factor two explained that 1.5MNPK positively affected soil insect community, which showed that the diversified fertilizer did not evenly affect the soil insect community.