The side effects of 9 insecticides, 8 fungicides and 4 herbicides on 19 different beneficial arthropods and 1 entomopathogenic fungus were tested by the IOBC/WPRS Working Group “Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms”. Twenty research workers from 13 countries participated. A combination of 5 different types of test methods was used: a. laboratory, exposed life stage of the organism, b. laboratory, less exposed life stage, c. semi‐field, initial toxicity, d. semi‐field, persistence (duration of harmful activity), e. field. Although nearly all the insecticides tested were harmful to most of the beneficial insects tested, especially in the first test, few of them were shown to be less harmful or less persistent in further testing. The fungicides Milgo‐E (ethirimol) and Trimidal EC (nuarimol) which are used on cereal crops as well as Rubigan Vloeibaar (fenarimol) and Ortho‐Phaltan 50 (folpet) which are used in fruit orchards were found to be harmless to all beneficial organisms relevant for these crops tested in the experiments and can be recommended for use in integrated control programmes. With different predatory mites, there was clear agreement between the results of laboratory, semi‐field and field experiments. The insecticides Asepta Nexion (bromophos), Birlane EC 40 (chlorfenvinphos), Dursban Spritzpulver (chlorpyrifos), Ambush C (cypermethrin), Basudine Vloeibaar (diazinon), Perfekthion (dimethoate), Phosdrine W 10 (mevinphos), Dimecron 20 (phosphamidon), Hostathion (triazophos) as well as the fungicide Polyram‐Combi (metiram) were found to be harmful to predatory mites in all types of tests. The fungicides Milgo‐E (ethirimol), Corbel (fenpropimorph) and Trimidal EC (nuarimol) were harmless. The agreement of results between the laboratory, semi‐field and field tests indicated that, at least with predatory mites, reliable results can also be expected on the harmfulness of pesticides from laboratory experiments. The results also showed that 6 insecticides, 1 fungicide and 2 herbicides were harmless to the entomopathogenic fungus Verticillium lecanii. Zusammenfassung Ergebnisse des vierten gemeinsamen Prüfprogrammes von Pflanzenschutzmitteln durch die IOBC/WPRS‐Arbeitsgruppe “Pflanzenschutzmittel und Nutzorganismen” Neun Insektizide, 8 Fungizide und 4 Herbizide wurden auf Nebenwirkungen gegenüber 19 verschiedenen Nutzarthropoden und einem entomopathogenen Pilz von Mitgliedern der internationalen IOBC/WPRS‐Arbeitsgruppe “Pflanzenschutzmittel und Nutzorganismen” geprüft. An diesen Versuchen nahmen 20 Wissenschaftler aus 13 Ländern teil. Eine Kombination folgender 5 Arten von Prüfmethoden fand hierbei Verwendung: a. Labor, stark gefährdete Nützlingsstadien, b. Labor, weniger gefährdete Nützlingsstadien, c. Halbfreiland, Initialwirkung, d. Halbfreiland, Persistenz (Schadwirkungsdauer), e. Freiland. Während fast alle geprüften Insektizide gegenüber den meisten Nutzinsekten stark schädigend waren, besonders im Test a., konnte in weiteren Prüfungen bei einigen Präparaten ein geringerer Schädigungsgrad bzw. eine ...

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Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are employed in antifouling paints, and chromium oxide nanoparticles (Cr 2 O 3 NPs) have been used as a green pigment. Their extensive use can contaminate aquatic ecosystems, and the toxicological effects of these NPs to the biota are poorly known. In this study, we evaluated the acute toxicity induced by CuO (15-30 nm) and the higher zeta potential may have contributed to the higher stability in suspension and less potential for agglomeration, partially explaining the higher toxicity of NPs in relation to Cr(NO 3 ) 3 . After the tests, we observed morphological damages such as increase in fat droplets, internal organ exposure and partially disintegration in organisms exposed to all tested substances, NPs or the salts.

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ResumoAs abelhas são importantes polinizadores que têm sido impactados negativamente por mudanças ambientais antropogênicas, tais como a urbanização. Além disso, o desenvolvimento urbano pode reduzir e degradar o habitat natural das abelhas aumentando a proporção de superfícies impermeáveis, diminuindo as áreas verdes e aumentando o número de plantas ornamentais exóticas. Entretanto, as cidades podem oferecer refúgio para as abelhas porque elas proporcionam um ambiente com uma grande variedade de recursos para alimentação e nidificação. O objetivo de nosso estudo foi avaliar a riqueza e a abundância de abelhas, seus respectivos grupos funcionais e composição comunitária ao longo de um gradiente de urbanização em 21 localidades distribuídas entre 6 cidades brasileiras de médio porte (com populações entre 80.000 e 170.000 habitantes). Também avaliamos o efeito da riqueza, número de plantas e proporção de plantas nativas. Coletamos um total de 132 espécies de abelhas. A riqueza total de abelhas diminuiu com o aumento da cobertura impermeável e aumentou com a heterogeneidade da paisagem, o que também teve um efeito positivo sobre a riqueza de abelhas que nidificam acima do solo e abelhas generalistas. Em relação aos dados de abundância, as abelhas solitárias e as abelhas que nidificam no solo foram positivamente influenciadas pelo aumento da cobertura de gramíneas. O número total de plantas nativas e exóticas coletadas influenciou positivamente a abundância total de abelhas, bem como a abundância de abelhas eusociais, que nidificam acima do solo e no solo, e generalistas. A proporção de plantas nativas influenciou positivamente a riqueza total e a abundância de abelhas especializadas. Os nossos resultados indicam que as áreas urbanas de médio porte podem albergar uma grande diversidade de espécies de abelhas, mas as espécies que nidificam no solo e as espécies especialistas podem ser mais sensíveis à urbanização e à diminuição da oferta de recursos florais.

Interest in functional diversity has grown in recent years, indicating that knowledge on ecosystem functions gain importance. However, the incongruent use of terms may lead to misunderstandings and incomparable results. We aimed to review terms used in functional diversity among the Brazilian scientific community to identify if there is a lack of consensus in the terminology used. We applied online surveys to assess how these terms have been used by the Brazilian academics and searched for their definitions in the scientific literature. The definition of "ecological function" by Brazilian academics is like that of the niche, but we only found two articles defining such a term in the literature. Thus, it seems that "ecosystem function" is a more commonly used term outside of Brazil. The definition of "guilds" coincided with that used in the literature, although we still observed a lack of consensus in the latter. For "traits," "functional group," and "functional diversity" concepts, we found some discrepancy between the literature and questionnaires. These inconsistencies can be related to the use of different organizational levels for the definition of traits and to the practice of replacing species with functional groups in standard taxonomic diversity metrics, considering them as measurements of functional diversity. The adoption of cohesive terminology is crucial to ensure the comparability of scientific results in the scientific literature. However, finding a consensus in ecology represents a hard task; therefore, we encourage that, at least, researchers make clear which key concepts they adopted in their research to avoid misunderstandings.

Bees are important pollinators that have been negatively impacted by anthropogenic environmental changes, such as urbanization. In addition, urban development can reduce and degrade the natural habitat of bees by increasing the proportion of impervious surfaces, decreasing green areas and increasing the number of exotic ornamental plants. However, cities can provide refuge for bees because they provide an environment with a wide variety of nesting and foraging resources. The objective of our study was to evaluate the richness and abundance of bees, their respective functional groups, and community composition along with an urbanization gradient in 21 locations distributed among six medium‐sized Brazilian cities (with populations between 80 000 and 170 000 inhabitants). We also evaluated the effect of richness, number of plants and proportion of native plants. We collected a total of 132 species of bees. Total bee richness decreased with increasing impervious cover and increased with landscape heterogeneity, which also had a positive effect on the richness of above‐ground nesting bees and generalist bees. Regarding abundance data, solitary bees and belowground‐nesting bees were positively influenced by the increase in grass cover. The total number of native and exotic plants collected positively influenced the total abundance of bees, as well as the abundances of eusocial bees, which nest above‐ and belowground, and generalists. The proportion of native plants positively influenced the total richness and abundance of specialist bees. Our results indicate that medium‐sized urban areas may be home to a wide diversity of bee species, but species that nest in the soil and specialist species may be more sensitive to urbanization and the decrease in the supply of floral resources.

Urban environments are critical points for biological invasions because these areas are susceptible to a greater number of environmental disturbances. Because they are densely populated ecosystems, urban environments present a unique opportunity for the involvement of society in the management of invasive exotic species. Similarly, citizen science offers opportunities to conduct research in the field of ecology together with society. The objective of our study was to analyze the occurrence of exotic species in urban areas recorded on iNaturalist and determine whether citizen science applications are good data sources for research projects in invasion ecology. Specifically, we evaluated whether richness and composition of the exotic species community in the cities registered on the iNaturalist platform were explained by socioeconomic and environmental factors. We also verified whether richness of the exotic species in cities registered on the iNaturalist platform were similar to the richness of the exotic species community in the region where the city is located using data collected only by researchers. We obtained 38,374 occurrences of 265 invasive species covering 2,057 cities in 72 countries. Occurrence records were concentrated in North America, Western Europe and Oceania, and there were no data for cities in most of Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and West Asia. Socioeconomic and environmental factors were important determinants of the richness of exotic species in urban areas of the world and were important determinants of the richness of exotic species in natural environments. Urban hotspots of invasive exotic species were different from those for ecosystems in general.