I don’t like bugs. Creepy, multi-legged things make my skin crawl. But unpleasant as they may be, insects are absolutely crucial to the functioning of our world’s ecosystems, and unfortunately, new research shows that the creatures’ populations are on the verge of collapse.
That is the theme of the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, the Global Decline of Insects in the Anthropocene Special Feature, which contains 12 paper performed by 56 authors who describe the rapid decline of insects.
One reason for this decline is habitat degradation. Such as an of the studies it appears that changes in land use for agriculture are a major cause. The industrialization of agriculture in the second half of the 20th century included greatly expanded-scale farming, monoculture, the application of increasing amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, and the elimination of alternating hedges and other fragments of wildlife, all practices that are destructive for insects and other biodiversity in and near the fields, “the study said. The problem is widespread – currently about 11% of the earth’s land area is used to grow crops. and 30% more is used for pasture for livestock.
The authors are particularly concerned about the consequences of agriculture in tropical regions, where deforestation to clear land for agriculture is common.
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“Since the vast majority of insect species diversity is found in the tropics, deforestation is certainly one of the greatest threats to insect biodiversity in the world,” the study said. Since scientists estimate that less than 15% of insects in the tropics have been discovered by humans, this means that many species will go extinct before we even know they exist. That could make it difficult to understand what effects their loss will have on forest ecosystems in general.
The study authors also highlight the issue of the decline of the world’s grasslands. Since so much prairie land is used to it growing crops and feeding animals, insects native to these places– including many species of butterflies, moths, ants, bees and wasps – are most at risk.
An even greater contribution to the dangerous decline of insects than the direct effect of land use change, another study in the package shows, is the climate crisis. “From invasive species to habitat loss, pesticides and pollution, the stressors of the Anthropocene are many and manifold, but none are as geographically ubiquitous or as likely to interact with all other factors as climate change,” the study said.
The authors performed a meta-analysis of literature of long-term monitoring of insect populations and found many cases of decreased numbers. In the mountains of California, for example, rising average daily minimum temperatures caused this butterfly populations are decliningespecially during drier years, as the warmer climate increases theand mating schedules and access to nectar producing plants. The same was true for moth populations amid warming temperatures in Finland and the United StatesK, which one had problems maintaining their optimal body temperature.
In other places, however, insects thrive in warm weather. The authors found evidence of this at low altitude parts of California and Central Europe. That’s because in some regions the higher temperatures helped larvae grow faster and cause some bugs to mate more often. This may sound like a good thing, but too many insects is also a problem, as the huge populations can confuse ecosystems and societies. Just look at the huge swarms of locusts Which plagued East Africa devastating last year arable land in an area where many are already chronically hungry.
Clearly, there is a need worldwide to ensure that insect populations stay where they should be. In a perspective piece that contextualizes the other articles, researchers explain the key ways world leaders can make this happen.
Efforts should include more careful monitoring of the health and size of the insect populationand the stressors from rising temperatures to pesticide use. In addition to setting up new monitoringcall on the authors to devote more resources to analyzing existing data that is already there, many of which are hardly analyzed or viewed at all. For example, the new PNAS release includes the very first analysis of bug data from the US. Long-term ecological research program since it was founded in 1980.
Even if we’re monitoring and analysis, say the perspective authors, we know enough for world leaders to take immediate action to step. They can work to contain the amount of land used for agriculture and the amount of pesticides allowed for use, and they can pursue policies to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to quell the climate crisis. And scientists can work harder to communicate the importance of insect populations to the public, so the public will demand more efforts to protect insects. The perspective already says that many insect populations are declining annually by 1-2% per year, putting them on a packagecourse with die out if we don’t reverse course.