Shulman, M.V., Pakhomov, O.Y., Brygadyrenko, V.V., 2017. Effect of lead and cadmium ions upon the pupariation and morphological changes in Calliphora vicina (Diptera, Calliphoridae). Folia Oecologica, 44: 28-37.Modelling the influence of different concentrations of lead and cadmium ions upon a laboratory culture of insects has not been adequately studied. In our research, we assessed the influence of cadmium and lead nitrates at different concentrations (10 -2 -10 -9 М) upon the development of larvae, pupae and imagines of Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera: Calliphoridae). We found an acceleration in the development of larvae and an increase in mass of puparia when lead ions were added to the food of the larvae, and decrease in the mass of puparia when cadmium ions were added. We registered nanism and malformation of the fly imagines in experiments with lead and cadmium in the food substrate. We observed that under the influence of the studied heavy metal ions there was a reduced motor activity of the fly larvae at all stages of development, a delay in formation of puparia and a delay in the emergence of imagines in comparison with the control group.

The litter macrofauna of 8 plantations of Populus italica (Du Roi) Moench, P. deltoides Marsh. and P. alba L. was studied in the city of Dnipro. The invertebrates were taken by manual sifting of litter from experimental plots of 8 m 2 . The total number of litter macrofauna in the poplar plantations varied from 8 to 187 specimen/m 2 , on average 53 specimen/m 2 . The greatest variety of species was obtained from a white poplar plantation with common hop and an elm-poplar plantation with bare soil and Amorpha fruticosa L. bushes (15 and 9 species correspondingly). The maximum readings on the Shannon-Weaver diversity index come from the abovementioned areas (3.2 and 2.9 bits respectively). The highest number of zoophages (40%) was obtained from the white poplar plantation with common hop. There was great consistency in the species composition across the plots, with the same 60 species (more than 50% of the total number of species of litter macrofauna recorded in the study) being found in 7 out of the 8 study plots. The share of species rare for any given ecosystem exceeded 10% in only 2 out of the 8 plantations studied. The dominant group in the size structure of the litter macrofauna of the poplar plantations (44-96%) was invertebrates of 4-7 mm length. In 5 out of 8 poplar plantations no species over 15 mm in length were found. This indicates the degraded size structures of the litter macrofauna communities. In taxonomic structure the dominant groups were Formicidae, Pulmonata, Porcellionidae, Lygaeidae, Julidae, Silphidae, Araneae, Carabidae, Staphylinidae. The results obtained indicate the low variety and degradation of the trophic and size structure of the litter macrofauna of these urban poplar plantations, which are subject to lack of moisture.

In Ukraine's Steppe zone the extraction of minerals is important. To eliminate the consequences of coal mining the agricultural recultivation of the disturbed soil is used. Thus toxic compounds for human beings and the majority of plants and soil biota representatives, which can be found mining rock, get into plants and invertebrates by trophy chains. When remediating soil, it is necessary to create tropic conditions in order to provide the life of soil biota. Earthworms (Lumbricidae) are the primary decomposers of the organic material. They are numerous in soil and facilitate the improvement of natural and artificially created soil. This paper studies the possible influence of different variants of substrates, which are used in re-cultivation, the leaf litter from leaves of different wood species, as well as different levels of humidity on the representatives of soil saprophages. Optimal variants of artificial mixed-soil providing the stable existence of animals have been shown, which are recommended for the implementation of rehabilitation measures.

Abstract-Environmental aspects of tropho metabolic activity of soil saprophages on the pH buffering capacity of remediated soils in Ukraine was considered. Earthworm (Lumbricidae) casts have been proven experimentally to have a higher acid-base buffering capacity in comparison with that of the initial soil. Remediated soils enriched with earthworm casts become more resistant to negative anthropogenic effects. Thus, the activity of soil saprophages influences positively the environmental properties of remediated soils on forest remediation sites by increasing their buffer capacity.

The research was carried out at the Research Centre of the Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University in Pokrov city. Sampling was carried out in 2013–2015 on a variant of artificial soil (technosols) formed on loess-like loam, red-brown clay, green-grey clay, technological mixture of rocks, and also formed on loess-like loam with a humus-rich 70 cm top soil layer. To investigate the spatiotemporal variation in the abundance, species richness and species composition of invertebrate assemblages within the experimental polygon, the animals were sampled using pitfall traps. In total, 60 pitfall traps were operated simultaneously during each sampling period. Each year the pitfalls were emptied 26 times every 7–9 days. Invertebrates (Arthropoda and Mollusca) of 6 classes, 13 orders, 50 families and 202 species or parataxonomic units were recorded. Diplopoda was most abundant taxonomic group, though it was represented by only one species Rossiulus kessleri (Lohmander, 1927). Coleoptera and Araneae were the most numerous taxonomic groups. Readily available water for plants, precipitation, wind speed, atmospheric temperature (daily minimum, daily maximum, daily mean), atmospheric humidity and atmospheric pressure were used as environmental predictors. Two dimension geographic coordinates of the sampling locations were used to generate a set of orthogonal eigenvector-based spatial variables. Time series of sampling dates were used to generate a set of orthogonal eigenvector-based temporal variables. The moisture content in the technosols was revealed to be the most important factor determining the temporal dynamics of the terrestrial invertebrate community in conditions of semi-arid climate and the ecosystem which formed as a result of the reclamation process. Following soil moisture, the factor most strongly affecting invertebrates in the technosols was temperature. From the total set of the invertebrates, two relatively homogeneous species groups in terms of thermal preferences were extracted: the microtemperature and mesotemperature groups. The microtemperature species are more tolerant to the thermal factor, and the mesotemperature species are more sensitive. The Huisman-Olff-Fresco approach expanded by Jansen-Oksanen provides a wide set of ecologically relevant models which are able to explain species response. The species response to temperature is affected by a complex of other environmental, temporal and spatial factors. The effect of other factors on the species response must be previously extracted to find real estimations of the species temperature optima and tolerance. The approaches to solving this problem may be the object of future investigation.

In the last two decades, the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.), introduced into the steppe zone of Ukraine, has been severely affected by the horse chestnut leaf miner Camereraria ohridella Deschka & Dimič, 1986, which results in damage to the assimilating organs, premature leaf defoliation and, as a consequence, a significant reduction in the reserve substances required for normal life of the plant. In recent studies, the main focus has been placed on the study of the pest’s effects on the non-enzymatic antioxidant protection system of the representatives of the genus Aesculus, while the enzymatic system of horse chestnut protection from the active forms of oxygen under stress is still poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the reaction of catalase and two peroxidases of A. hippocastanum leaves, which differ in the level of damage by C. ohridella. The intensity of damage to A. hippocastanum leaves by the horse chestnut leaf miner in the park zones and botanical gardens of Dnipro city was determined, the activity and isoenzyme composition of benzidine-peroxidase, activity of guaiacol-peroxidase and catalase were measured. The lowest average benzidine-peroxidase activity was found in the group of trees with low level of leaf blight and the highest activity – in the group with high level. The opposite dependence was shown by catalase, the activity of which significantly decreases with increasing level of damage inflicted by the phytophage on the chestnut’s assimilating organs. Based on the determination of the variation coefficients, it has been shown that benzidine-peroxidase activity has a higher level of variability than that of catalase and guaiacol-peroxidase. It is established that under the influence of the leaf miner, activity of guaiacol-peroxidase was significantly higher by 87.1% and 75.6%, respectively, for medium and high levels of damage caused to the leaf by this phytophage as compared to that for low levels of damage. The increased level of leaf damage caused by the phytophage is reflected in the change in the isozyme profile of benzidine-peroxidase. The high activity of benzidine-peroxidase in the leaves of A. hippocastanum is due to the presence of several molecular forms that exhibit maximum activity in the narrow pH range (4.15–4.69). Quantitative redistribution of activity between the different molecular forms of benzidine peroxidase can be considered as the main regularity of changes in the expression of benzidine-peroxidase caused by different levels of leaf damage. The results showed that only one benzidine-peroxidase isoform with an isoelectric point of 4.15 shows a significant increase in activity (on average by 2.1 times) in A. hippocastanum leaves with medium and high levels of damage by C. ohridella. Significant reduction in activity is reported for dominant isoperoxidase with an isoelectric point of 4.25 revealing medium pest damage, and for high damage only a decreasing tendency is shown. The data obtained show that horse chestnut trees can specifically respond to mechanical damage by C. ohridella to leaves due to the changes in the activity of individual molecular forms of peroxidase. Further studies of oxidative metabolism are needed to understand the formation of resistance of representatives of the Aesculus genus to damage caused by this moth species based on a wider range of redox enzymes.

The diet spectrum of the song thrush (Turdus philomelos Brehm, 1831; Passeriformes, Turdidae) was studied with the aim of supporting the population of the species in transformed forests of North-Eastern Ukraine. Four forest ecosystems were surveyed: three model sites in oak woodlands with different stages of recreational digression, and the fourth model site in a pine-oak forest. A total of 45 invertebrate taxa with the dominance of Insecta (64.6%, n = 1321), Oligochaеta (16.7%), and Gastropoda (12.0%) were revealed in the diet of the song thrush. At the level of orders, Lepidoptera (66.2%) was dominant. In the qualitative structure of the song thrush nestling diet, the highest number of taxa (40.5–59.1%) was represented by phytophages. Phytophagous species also comprised the majority of the consumed prey items (44.7–80.3%). Environmental conditions are an important factor, affecting the diet composition of birds. The most favourable foraging conditions for the thrushes were revealed in natural protected areas. The analysis has shown a fairly even foraging efficiency of the thrushes in all the studied sites. The highest biodiversity indices were found in a protected area of the National Nature Park “Homilshanski Forests”. The results of the research indicate an important role of T. philomelos in the population management of potentially dangerous agricultural pests.

In the present article, the patterns of the geographic variability in yields of rye within Polesia and the Forest-Steppe zone of Ukraine are presented and the correlation of the factors and dynamics of an agroeconomic and agroecological nature was determined. The dynamics of rye yields in the study area over time were determined as being characterized by three extreme points: two local maxima and one local minimum. Specific terms of the polynomial curve of the fourth order can be meaningfully interpreted and applied to describe the dynamics of productivity. Free members of the polynomial indicate culture productivity in the starting period. Dynamics of the productivity that can be explained by the regression indicate that agrotechnological and agrecological conditions of agricultural production are a pervasive factor that determines the presence of a general trend. The determination coefficient of the regression total trend can be interpreted as an indicator of the role of the agrotechnological and agroeconomic factors in the dynamics of productivity. The residue of the trend regression model can be interpreted so as to include the agroecological component of the rye yields dynamics. Their analysis revealed seven key components that together explained 58.4% of the total variability of the space feature. The principal components of vibrational patterns reflect the specific nature of variation of rye yields over time, which are spatially defined. Vibrational effects are environmental in nature. Geographically weighted principal component analysis showed the transience of environmental spatial modes which determine the oscillating component of rye yield variation over time. Spaces within which the structure of ecological interactions remains unchanged can be considered as the basis of agroecological zoning areas.