Entomopathogenic ascomycete fungi are ubiquitous in soil and on phylloplanes, and are important natural enemies of many soil-borne arthropods including larval western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, which is a major pest of corn. We measured the prevalence of Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae sensu lato in ten cornfields in Iowa, USA by baiting with larval insects. B....

A major problem facing ecologists is obtaining a complete picture of the highly complex soil community. While DNA-based methods are routinely used to assess prokaryote community structure and diversity in soil, approaches for measuring the total faunal community are not yet available. This is due to difficulties such as designing primers specific to a range of soil animals while excluding other...

-During spring and early summer, shruband herbaceous-level vegetation provides nesting and foraging habitat for many shrub-habitat birds. We examined relationships among arthropod biomass and abundance, foliage leaf surface area and weight, vegetation ground cover, soil characteristics, relative humidity, and temperature to evaluate what factors may influence arthropod food resources for birds....

Plant growth depends upon the activity of numerous types of organisms within the environment. The recycling of nutrients in the forest floor involves the interaction of a vast diversity of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and invertebrates. Arthropods are integral to the initial shredding of the litter, which exposes nutrients to microbial digestion. Hundreds of California species either feed directl...

Sewage sludge applied to agricultural soils often contains considerable amounts of linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS). Toxic effects of LAS on soil organisms should, therefore. be evaluated to ensure safe use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer. In this study, dose-response relationships for the toxicity of Na-LAS to six species of soil invertebrates (survival, reproduction, and growth) were est...

Climatic and biome changes of the past million years influenced the population structure and genetic diversity of soil-living arthropods in Europe. However, their effects on the genetic structure of widespread and abundant soil animal species such as the Collembola Parisotoma notabilis remain virtually unknown. This generalist and parthenogenetic species is an early colonizer of disturbed habit...

Along with some studies on soil fauna in various Sicilian sites, both agricultural lands and typical Mediterranean habitats, particular attention was paid to the Collembolan. Specific identification allowed assess occurrence Sicily of 39 species not previously recorded, belonging 10 families: Hypogastruridae (six species), Brachystomellidae (one Neanuridae (five Onychiuridae (three Tullbergiida...

The effects of environmental change on soil animal communities are poorly known. Norwegian mountains are subject to both atmospheric nitrogen deposition and increased temperature. In a nutrient poor alpine Dryas heath in south Norway, soil arthropods were studied after 4 years of simulated environmental change by warming and/or nutrient addition. Warming alone only affected three low-density Co...

Research in extremely delicate environments must be sensitive to the need to minimize impacts caused simply through the presence of research personnel. This study investigates the effectiveness of current advice relating to travel on foot over Antarctic vegetation-free soils. These are based on the concentration of impacts through the creation of properly signed and identified paths. In order t...