Research and Publications

Lastest Published

The dark side of organic farming: Copper sulphate compromises the life history and behaviour of the walking stick insect, Bacillus rossius

Claudio Pardo, Adriana Bellati, Giovanni Polverino, Daniele Canestrelli

Organic farming is considered the most sustainable form of modern soil cultivation. Yet it often relies on the use of chemical compounds that are not necessarily harmless for the surrounding wildlife. In this study, we tested the effects of realistic concentrations of copper sulphate—largely used in organic farming as a fungicide—on ecologically-relevant traits of the walking stick insect Bacillus rossius, a species commonly found in the proximity of cultivated fields across Europe.

We measured the impact of copper sulphate (CuSO4) on both the life-history (body condition, number of eggs, and hatching success) and behavioural traits (activity and maximum vertical speed) of the individuals. We observed strong negative effects of high, realistic concentrations of copper sulphate on most traits within 12 days of exposure, while effects were less evident at lower concentrations of the pollutant.

Our results reveal that realistic concentrations of copper sulphate can compromise important traits that regulate both the survival and reproduction of animals in the wild, with such effects that are, however, dose dependent. We suggest that common practices in organic farming require further consideration on their ecological and evolutionary impact on wildlife.

Publications

Pardo, C., Bellati, A., Polverino, G., & Canestrelli, D. (2024). The dark side of organic farming: Copper sulphate compromises the life history and behaviour of the walking stick insect, Bacillus rossius. Science of The Total Environment, 942, 173626. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173626
Berrilli, E., Gambioli, B., Bombi, P., Garzia, M., Muraro, M., Pardo, C., Reale, M., Sherpa, S., Ficetola, G. F., Vignoli, L., & Salvi, D. (2024). Subspecies inflation hampers conservation efforts: A case study on wall lizards. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, blae001. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blae001

Cerini, F., Pardo, C., Taurozzi, D., Gambioli, B., & Vignoli, L. (2023). Mutual Avoidance in the Spectacled Salamander and Centipede: A Discrepancy between Exploratory Field and Laboratory Data. Animals, 13(20), 3214. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13203214
Muraro, M., Sherpa, S., Barzaghi, B., Bombi, P., Borgatti, D., Di Canio, V., Dalpasso, A., Falaschi, M., Gambioli, B., Manenti, R., Marta, S., Momigliano, P., Nanni, V., Pardo, C., Parrino, E. L., Scali, S., Storniolo, F., Vignoli, L., Zuffi, M. A. L., … Ficetola, G. F. (2022). Condition- and context-dependent variation of sexual dimorphism across lizard populations at different spatial scales. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 16969. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21358-2

Conference contributions

Gambioli B., Pischedda A., Pardo C., Caruso Y., Macale D., Vignoli L.; “Seasonal phenotypic variation in the Aeolian wall lizard, Podarcis raffonei, of the Capo Grosso (Vulcano) population.” - XIII Congresso Nazionale Societas Herpetologica Italica Lipari, 2019. Poster
Pardo C., Bellati A,. Vignoli L.; "Allochrony in the Moorish gecko as a behavioral syndrome: an ecological and genetic study" - Congress of European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2022, Prague - Czech Republic. Poster
Pardo C., Bellati A,. Vignoli L.; "Allochrony in the Moorish gecko as a behavioral syndrome: an ecological and genetic study" - XV Congresso Nazionale Societas Herpetologica Italica 2022, Turin - Italy . Talk
Pardo C., Bellati A., Salvi D., Canestrelli D.; "Colour changing ability of the European leaf-toed gecko Euleptes europaea: effects of background and light conditions" - Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TiBE) 2022, Vila do Conde - Portugal. Poster
Gambioli B., Reale M., Muraro M., Sherpa S., Barzaghi B., Bombi P., Borgatti D., Di Canio V., Dalpasso A., Falaschi M., Manenti R., Marta S., Momigliano P., Nanni V., Pardo C., Lo Parrino E., Scali S., Storniolo F., Zuffi M. A. L., Sacchi R., Salvi D., Ficetola G.F., Vignoli L.; "Colour variation in the Italian wall lizard, Podarcis siculus, from the Aeolian archipelago" - Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TiBE) 2022, Vila do Conde - Portugal. Poster

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