Impact of transgenic insect-resistant maize HGK60 with Cry1Ah gene on community components and biodiversity of arthropods in the fields

showed no significant difference (P>0.05) in 2019 and 2020. That is, analyses of Richness index (Dmg), Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H), Dominance index (D) and Evenness index (J) showed no significant difference between HGK60 and Z58 in 2019 and 2020. The results showed that the similarity coefficients of each group (herbivorous, predatory, parasitic and neutral group) in the HGK60 and Z58 maize plots were higher than 0.6 in 2019 and 2020 (Table 2). In the two years, the similarity coefficients of arthropod communities in the HGK60 and Z58 maize plots were higher than 0.72, and the similarity coefficients at head- ing and full ripe stage were higher than 0.75, indicating that the arthropod communities in these plots were highly similar. According to the experiment results in 2019, the similarity coefficients of herbivorous group at the seeding stage and bell stage reached a moderately simi- lar level, and that at heading and full ripe stage reached a highly similar level. The coefficients of predatory group was highly similar at all four growth stages. The coefficients of parasitic group was moderately similar at seedling stage and heading stage, and highly similar at bell stage and full ripe stage. The coefficients of neutral group was highly similar only at full ripe stage, and that was moderately similar at the other three growth stages. According to the exper- iment results in 2020, the similarity coefficients of herbivorous group at the seeding stage, heading stage and bell stage reached a highly similar level, and that at bell stage reached a mod-

erately similar level. The coefficients of predatory group were highly similar at all four growth Fig 1. Species number and individual number of the herbivorous, predatory, parasitic and neutral groups of arthropods in the fields of HGK60 and Z58 in 2019 and 2020. I: Seedling stage; II: Bell stage; III: Heading stage; IV: Full ripe stage. Data (means ± SD) in the figure followed by asterisks indicate a significant difference betweenHGK60 and Z58 by t-test at P < 0.05. The same below. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269459.g001 PLOS ONE Impact of transgenic insect-resistant maize HGK60 with Cry1Ah gene PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269459 June 3, 2022 6 / 13