Conservation of pollinators in traditional agricultural landscapes – New challenges in Transylvania (Romania) posed by EU accession and recommendations for future research

Farmland biodiversity is strongly declining in most of Western Europe, but still survives in traditional low intensity agricultural landscapes in Central and Eastern Europe. Accession to the EU however intensifies agriculture, which leads to the vanishing of traditional farming. Our aim was to describe the pollinator assemblages of the last remnants of these landscapes, thus set the baseline of sustainable farming for pollination, and to highlight potential measures of conservation. In these traditional farmlands in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania (EU accession in 2007), we studied the major pollinator groups-wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. Landscape scale effects of semi-natural habitats, land cover diversity, the effects of heterogeneity and woody vegetation cover and on-site flower resources were tested on pollinator communities in traditionally managed arable fields and grasslands. Our results showed: (i) semi-natural habitats at the landscape scale have a positive effect on most pollinators, especially in the case of low heterogeneity of the direct vicinity of the studied sites; (ii) both arable fields and grasslands hold abundant flower resources, thus both land use types are important in sustaining pollinator communities; (iii) thus, pollinator conservation can rely even on arable fields under traditional management regime. This has an indirect message that the tiny flower margins around large intensive fields in west Europe can be insufficient conservation measures to restore pollinator communities at the landscape scale, as this is still far the baseline of necessary flower resources. This hypothesis needs further study, which includes more traditional landscapes providing baseline, and exploration of other factors behind the lower than baseline level biodiversity values of fields under agri-environmental schemes (AES)

Pal osadzony w miękkiej skale z wpływem pełzania – podejście niezawodnościowe bazujące na sieciach falkowo-neuronowych

In the present study the numerical model of the pile embedded in marl described by a time dependent model, based on laboratory tests, is proposed. The solutions complement the state of knowledge of the monopile loaded by horizontal force in its head with respect to its random variability values in time function. The investigated reliability problem is defined by the union of failure events defined by the excessive horizontal maximal displacement of the pile head in each periods of loads. Abaqus has been used for modeling of the presented task with a two layered viscoplastic model for marl. The mechanical parameters for both parts of model: plastic and rheological were calibrated based on the creep laboratory test results. The important aspect of the problem is reliability analysis of a monopile in complex environment under random sequences of loads which help understanding the role of viscosity in nature of rock basis constructions. Due to the lack of analytical solutions the computations were done by the method of response surface in conjunction with wavelet neural network as a method recommended for time sequences process and description of nonlinear phenomenon.W niniejszym studium zaprezentowany jest problem pojedynczego pala osadzonego w miękkiej skale, zastosowano wiskoplastyczny model materiału bazujący na wynikach badań laboratoryjnych zespołu z Uniwersytetu Montenegro. Rozwiązanie uzupełnia stan wiedzy dla pali obciążonych poziomą siłą w głowicy zmienną w sposób losowy w czasie. Badany problem niezawodności został określony przez sumę zdarzeń – awarii – zdefiniowanych jako przekroczenie maksymalnie dopuszczalnego poziomego przemieszczenia głowicy pala niezależnie w wszystkich stanach obciążenia. Zastosowano program metody elementów skończonych, ABAQUS, do budowy trójwymiarowego modelu z dwuwarstwowym wiskoplastycznym modelem dla margla. Parametry mechaniczne modelu zarówno w części plastycznej i reologicznej zostały skalibrowane na podstawie wyników badań laboratoryjnych wykonanych na przestrzeni ostatnich czterech lat na próbkach z jednorodnego złoża margla w Montenegro. Ważnym aspektem problemu jest analiza niezawodności pojedynczego pala dla złożonego mechanicznie środowiska w ramach sekwencji losowych obciążeń. Przedstawione zadanie pozwala dostrzec istotę lepkiej części modelu. Ze względu na brak rozwiązań analitycznych oraz długotrwałość procesu obliczeniowego obliczenia niezawodnościowe przeprowadzono metodą powierzchni odpowiedzi bazując na sieciach falkowo-neuronowych. Sieć poprzez nadanie jej struktury rejestru została dostosowana do opisu procesu o nieliniowym charakterze zjawiska i dla obciążeń zmiennych w czasie

A new species and a key to Greek Praon Haliday (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae)

The genus Praon Haliday in Greece consists of 6 species, the newly described R orpheusi included (Greece, Bulgaria). The new species emerged from the aphid Macrosiphum (Macrosiphum) rosae (Linnaeus) infecting Rosa sempervirens L. and Rosa caesia Sm. It is diagnosed and illustrated with photographs from the scanning electron microscope and line drawing. Furthermore, a key for the identification of species of Praon occurring in Greece is given, followed by photographs from the scanning electron microscope and line drawings. Finally, the parasitoid-aphid-plant associations of the Greek species mentioned in the key, some of which have also been found in Bulgaria and Turkey, are presented

Identification of molecular markers for DNA barcoding in the Aphidiinae (Hym. Braconidae)

Correspondence: Stephane Derocles, Fax: +33 2 23 48 51 70; E-mail: [email protected] audienceReliable identification of Aphidiinae species (Braconidae) is a prerequisite for conducting studies on aphidparasitoid interactions at the community level. However, morphological identification of Aphidiinae species remains problematic even for specialists and is almost impossible with larval stages. Here, we compared the efficiency of two molecular markers [mitochondrial cytochrome c oxydase I (COI) and nuclear long wavelength rhodopsin (LWRh)] that could be used to accurately identify about 50 species of Aphidiinae that commonly occur in aphidparasitoid networks in northwestern Europe. We first identified species on a morphological basis and then assessed the consistency of genetic and morphological data. Probably because of mitochondrial introgression, Aphidius ervi and A.microlophii were indistinguishable on the basis of their COI sequences, whereas LWRh sequences discriminated these species. Conversely, because of its lower variability, LWRh failed to discriminate two pairs of species (Aphidius aquilus, Aphidius salicis, Lysiphlebus confusus and Lysiphlebus fabarum). Our study showed that no unique locus but a combination of two genes should be used to accurately identify members of Aphidiinae

Efficacy of Insect Growth Regulators as Grain Protectants against Two Stored-Product Pests in Wheat and Maize

Insect growth regulators (IGRs) (two juvenile hormone analogues [fenoxycarb and pyriproxifen], four chitin synthesis inhibitors [diflubenzuron, flufenoxuron, lufenuron, and triflumuron], one ecdysteroid agonist [methoxyfenozide], and one combination of chitin synthesis inhibitors and juvenile hormone analogues [lufenuron plus fenoxycarb]) were tested in the laboratory against adults of Prostephanus truncatus in maize and against adults of Rhyzopertha dominica in wheat. The tested IGRs were applied in maize at three doses (1, 5, and 10 ppm) and assessed at three temperature levels (20, 25, and 30 degrees C) in the case of P. truncatus, while in the case of R. dominica the above doses were assessed only at 25 degrees C in wheat. In addition to progeny production, mortality of the treated adults after 14 days of exposure in the IGR-treated commodities was assessed. All IGRs were very effective (>88.5% suppression of progeny) against the tested species at doses of >= 5 ppm, while diflubenzuron at 25 degrees C in the case of P. truncatus or lufenuron and pyriproxyfen in the case of R. dominica completely suppressed (100%) progeny production when they were applied at 1 ppm. At all tested doses, the highest values of R. dominica parental mortality were observed in wheat treated with lufenuron plus fenoxycarb. Temperature at the levels examined in the present study did not appear to affect the overall performance in a great extent of the tested IGRs in terms of adult mortality or suppression of progeny production against P. truncatus in treated maize. The tested IGRs may be considered viable grain protectants and therefore as potential components in stored-product integrated pest management

Laboratory evaluation of diatomaceous earth deposits mined from several locations in central and southeastern Europe as potential protectants against coleopteran grain pests

Diatomaceous earth (DE) deposits from regions of central and southeastern Europe were evaluated for their insecticidal efficacy against Sitophilus oryzae (L.) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), Rhyzopertha dominica (F.) (Coleoptera: Bostrychidae) and Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in comparison with the commercially available DE formulation SilicoSec. The effects of temperature, RH, grain commodity (wheat, barley, maize, rice), application method (spraying vs. dusting) were evaluated. FYROM, a DE from the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, was the most effective of the DE deposits for grain treatment, whereas the least effective was from Greece (named Crete). However, for surface treatment, Slovenia was the most effective followed by Elassona 1 and Begora. Increase of temperature increased DE efficacy, while the reverse was noted with the increase of RH. Furthermore, the DEs were more effective in barley or wheat than in maize or rice. Neither the mined DEs nor SilicoSec were able to suppress progeny production of the tested species after previous exposure on the treated commodities. Generally, dust application of DEs was more efficacious than spraying against S. oryzae and T confusum. However, spraying of wheat significantly reduced the bulk density (test weight) compared to dusting. For surface treatment, after 1 d of exposure, Slovenia was the most effective of the mined DEs followed by Elassona 1 and Begora, whereas after 6 d of exposure the mortality was almost complete (> 99%) with all three DEs. More than 6 d of exposure were required for an effective control of T confusum adults with the remainder of the mined DEs. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved