The Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania
Soil ecosystems are extremely diverse, but it can be hard to account for diversity in soil ecotoxicology. Soil invertebrates can be challenging to collect, identify, and culture, so most soil ecotoxicology revolves around a handful of easily-culturable species (earthworms, potworms, and collembola). As these tests don’t capture the trophic and taxonomic diverse of soil communities, we’re severely limited in our understanding of how toxicants affect soil ecosystems. We can better understand how toxicants affect soil ecosystems by measuring community-level responses and by running toxicity assays on a suite of diverse soil invertebrates. As a case study, we’re presenting our work on how neonicotinoid and pyrethroid insecticides affect predatory ground beetles, firefly larvae, and wolf spiders.
