More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas.
Caspar A. Hallmann,Martin Sorg,Eelke Jongejans,Henk Siepel,Nick Hofland,Heinz Schwan,Werner Stenmans,Andreas Müller,Hubert Sumser,Thomas Hörren,Dave Goulson,Hans de Kroon +11 more
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This analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study, and shows that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline.Abstract:
Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.read more
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Intensification for redesigned and sustainable agricultural systems.
TL;DR: Sustainable intensification (SI) comprises agricultural processes or systems in which production is maintained or increased while progressing toward substantial enhancement of environmental outcomes, and incorporates these principles without the cultivation of more land and loss of unfarmed habitats and with increases in system performance that incur no net environmental cost.
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The projected effect on insects, vertebrates, and plants of limiting global warming to 1.5°C rather than 2°C.
TL;DR: Numbers of species projected to lose >50% of their range are reduced by ~66% in insects and by ~50% in plants and vertebrates when warming is limited to 1.5°C as compared with 2°C.
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Interpreting insect declines: seven challenges and a way forward
Raphael K. Didham,Raphael K. Didham,Yves Basset,C. Matilda Collins,Simon R. Leather,Nick A. Littlewood,Myles H. M. Menz,Jörg Müller,Jörg Müller,Laurence Packer,Manu E. Saunders,Karsten Schönrogge,Alan J. A. Stewart,Stephen P. Yanoviak,Stephen P. Yanoviak,Christopher Hassall +15 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify seven key challenges in drawing robust inference about insect population declines: establishment of the historical baseline, representativeness of site selection, robustness of time series trend estimation, mitigation of detection bias effects, and ability to account for potential artefacts of density dependence, phenological shifts and scale-dependence in extrapolation from sample abundance to population level inference.
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Agricultural intensification and climate change are rapidly decreasing insect biodiversity.
Peter H. Raven,David L. Wagner +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conclude that the spread and intensification of agriculture during the past half century is directly related to these losses, and that a stable (and almost certainly lower) human population, sustainable levels of consumption, and social justice that empowers the less wealthy people and nations of the world, where the vast majority of us live, will be necessary.
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Digital Sustainability and Entrepreneurship: How Digital Innovations Are Helping Tackle Climate Change and Sustainable Development:
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