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Bt Cotton Area Contraction Drives Regional Pest Resurgence, Crop Loss, and Pesticide Use by Yanhui Lu; Kris A. G. Wyckhuys; Long Yang; Bing Liu; Juan Zeng; Yuying Jiang; Nicolas Desneux; Wei Zhang; Kongming Wu is a Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Summary Genetically‐modified crops expressing __Bacillus thuringiensis__ (Bt) proteins have been widely cultivated, permitting an effective non‐chemical control of major agricultural pests. While their establishment can enable an area‐wide suppression of polyphagous herbivores, no information is available on the impact of Bt crop abandonment in entire landscape matrices. Here, we detail a resurgence of the cosmopolitan bollworm __Helicoverpa armigera__ following a contraction of Bt cotton area in dynamic agro‐landscapes over 2007–2019 in North China Plain. An 80% reduction in Bt cotton was mirrored in a 1.9‐fold increase of ambient __H. armigera__ population levels, culminating in 1.5–2.1‐fold higher yield loss and a 2.0–4.4‐fold increase in pesticide use frequency in non‐Bt crops (i.e. maize, peanut, soybean). Our work unveils the fate of herbivorous insect populations following a progressive dis‐use of insecticidal crop cultivars, and hints at how tactically deployed Bt crops could be paired with agro‐ecological measures to mitigate the environmental footprint of crop production.

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Author

Yanhui Lu; Kris A. G. Wyckhuys; Long Yang; Bing Liu; Juan Zeng; Yuying Jiang; Nicolas Desneux; Wei Zhang; Kongming Wu

Publisher

Wiley

Published

2021

Language

EN

Field

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)