This study examined the larvicidal effect of trunk-injected abamectin and emamectin benzoate against the walnut husk fly (Rhagoletis completa Cresson, 1929). Walnut trees in two locations in two years were injected with the pesticides at different concentrations. For the toxicokinetic studies, the active ingredient content was measured in the leaves, flowers, husks, and kernels, using a UHPLC-MS/MS analytical method. The walnut husk fly infestation rates were between 3 and 70% and 10 and 34% for abamectin and emamectin benzoate, respectively, and were much lower compared to those measured for the control. The active ingredient content in the walnut husk showed a positive correlation with the larvicidal effect. The injections had a measurable but unsatisfactory insecticidal effect in the second year, when the economic threshold was exceeded. Trace amounts of the active ingredients were detected in the flowers. The residue analysis showed a declining concentration trend in the leaves over time. The largest quantities were detected in the leaves (≤439 ng/g of abamectin; ≤19,079 ng/g of emamectin benzoate), with concentrations in the husks of orders of magnitude lower (≤5.86 ng/g; ≤50.19 ng/g). The measurements showed no active ingredient residue above the MRLs in either fresh or dried kernels. The results indicate that trunk injections of abamectin, as well as trunk injections of emamectin benzoate, have the potential to suppress walnut husk fly populations.

Soil is a complex habitat where microarthropods, such as mites (Acari) and springtails (Collembola) species occur in high number and species diversity. Microarthropods play an essential role in organic matter decomposition and provide an important ecosystem service in soil. The soil-dwelling microarthropods are sensitive to environmental changes; therefore, their ecological characteristics are used to evaluate soil conditions. In modern environmental ecology, several species are involved in assessing the ecological consequences of drought periods. The growth rate is a standard sublethal parameter by which the body size of individuals is measured. Extracting microarthropods from the soil is difficult and time-consuming, requiring a high amount of human resources. Only a few samples can be processed due to laboratory limitations and high costs. However, nowadays the rapidly developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies promise new opportunities in many research areas.Data on soil-dwelling microarthropods could be collected quickly and automatically using our new digital soil extractor device, the Edapholog, equipped with image analysis based on AI. This device recognizes living individuals, classifies them, and measures their body length automatically. Using this system, the growth and reproductive success of various species in the same experimental culture could be rapidly and simultaneously monitored. In this study, we aimed to analyse the applicability of the Edapholog for measuring the body size of Collembola species and Folsomia candida through a set of drought tolerance tests with three soil moisture treatment levels. Moisture content was set based on the maximum water holding capacity (Wmax) of the soil applied. The three levels were set to Wmax:35%, 40%, and 50%. Furthermore, we aimed to test the reliability of the detection and recognition of the species and the accuracy and reliability of the automatic body size measurement of individuals.Significant correlation (r= 0.94) exists between the automatically and manually measured body sizes. Although the different soil moisture treatments did not show marked differences in the collembolan body sizes between the moisture treatments, we found a significant difference in the reproduction rates between W50 and the other two (W35 and W40) treated groups. The Edapholog can greatly contribute to quick and precise data extraction and can have vast applicability in environmental ecology.

This study investigated whether permanent and regenerative (rotational) grazing systems are associated with differences in fecal bacterial and fungal microbiota of donkeys under extensive pasture conditions. Young female donkeys were assigned to permanent or regenerative grazing, and paired fecal samples from eight animals per system were collected before pasture access and at the end of the grazing period. Culture-based microbial counts, parasitological examination, animal performance measurements, forage assessment, and bacterial 16S rRNA gene and fungal ITS amplicon sequencing were performed. Donkeys under regenerative grazing showed higher average daily gain than those under permanent grazing (378.0 ± 57.8 vs. 242.4 ± 65.8 g/day; p < 0.001), whereas culture-based fecal microbial counts and fecal egg counts did not differ significantly between systems. Beta-diversity analyses identified sampling time as a consistent source of variation in both bacterial and fungal communities, whereas associations with grazing system and its interaction with sampling time depended on the distance metric used. Bacterial communities retained a large shared core, whereas fungal communities showed stronger compositional turnover. Longitudinal differential abundance analysis identified 336 bacterial and 66 fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) with significant grazing system × sampling time interactions. More positive temporal responses under regenerative grazing were observed among several Spirochaetota and Neocallimastigomycota ASVs, whereas detected Methanobrevibacter ASVs showed a more positive temporal change under permanent grazing.