Abstract
Foliar damage to white birch (Betula pubescens) caused by leaf-chewing insects and miners was assessed in 2005, 2006 and 2008 in the vicinity of a large copper smelter in the Middle Urals (Revda, Sverdlovsk oblast). The following indices were considerably smaller near the smelter than in the background and buffer zones: the overall leaf area removal (3–11 times), proportion of damaged leaves (up to 4 times), and average area removed per damaged leaf (2 times). The effect sizes were similar for all three parameters and remained stable with time. Both groups of leaf pests showed lower trophic activity in the impact zone, but the effects of pollution for leaf-chewing insects were greater than for miners.
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Original Russian Text © E.A. Belskaya, E.L. Vorobeichik, 2015, published in Sibirskii Ekologicheskii Zhurnal, 2015, No. 3, pp. 486–495.
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Belskaya, E.A., Vorobeichik, E.L. Changes in the trophic activity of leaf-eating insects in birch along the pollution gradient near the Middle Ural copper smelter. Contemp. Probl. Ecol. 8, 397–404 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542551503004X
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542551503004X