Here is the study:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
Here is a CNN article where I saw it first earlier today:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/europe/insect-decline-germany/index.html
I don't see where they looked at species diversity, just biomass overall
(did they? I admittedly just skimmed the paper). To me it's even
scarier that biomass overall is down that much. That HAS to mean
diversity is down at least that much. There's gonna be a lot of
starving birds out there, sadly.
This doesn't surprise me. Humans have sprayed the shit out of
everything and destroyed at least 75% of natural habitats. Looking at
Google Earth/Maps Satellite view makes me sick. How can they NOT be
declining? Maybe Ricky Bobby would be proud?
Nature is substantially more fragile than people think. Certain species
are robust and can make resurgances, rebound or hold on in minimally
sufficient areas, but many have specific requirements to thrive. I like
that they mention food webs and ecosystems. Monocultures in nature do
not exist. Every species is here for a reason and it's not really our
right to destroy any of them - and the downstream effects of
biodiversity loss are repulsive and scary to a degree that we don't even
know enough to yet appreciate.
This makes me think of chytrid fungus affecting amphibians world-wide.
Something very similar could happen or be happening with insects on TOP
of habitat destruction. You can only squeeze nature so far, pointing at
tinier and tinier areas and saying "this is where nature can exist, the
rest we will take for farms, parking lots, football stadiums, etc..."
and there comes a tipping point where the system collapses.
Wasn't there a study a couple of years ago showing loss of biodiversity
globally overall? Are there similar studies to this looking at species
ID/diversity along with biomass?
* Hopefully this group follows up with a corresponding diversity study -
or maybe they have the specimens and need a BUNCH of taxonomists to help
ID the mass they've collected?
On 10/19/2017 8:01 PM, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay wrote:
Insects declining worldwide?
Dear Colleagues:
Someone just made me aware of this article:
Stark decline in German insect population points to potential
ecological disaster - The Atlantic
https://apple.news/AfphbfQ_KR1atZGRWjii19g
<https://apple.news/AfphbfQ_KR1atZGRWjii19g>
Some 1-2 years ago, a similar paper reporting big declines in insects
commanded a lot of media.
Question: Has anyone else analyzed data on this assertion worldwide?
If "yes", what is the consensus?
If you have a constructive comment, please direct it to:
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Apologies for potential duplicate emails.
Gratefully,
Jorge
Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com <http://blaypublishers.com>
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