A recent study (see base of article) has once again highlighted the plight of invertebrates (our insects) which are so important in the ecosystem because birds tend to eat the most abundant insects and the most abundant insects provide important “ecosystem services” from pollination to controlling pest species.
The reason there has been a steady and some would argue catastrophic decline in insects in the UK and in other countries is because of:
- Intensification of agriculture since the Second World War which removes insect habitat and uses pesticides which kill more than the pests targeted;
- Urban expansion due to increased human population due to increased human settlements.
The scientists found that the species that were normally so abundant are the most badly affected with an average of an 8% drop year-on-year. All insect species dropped by about 1.5% in numbers per year.
The scientists thought that the most abundant species would be more resistant to human pressures but they are not.
“We might like to think that at least the most abundant species would be more resistant to human pressures. That may be it’s just the rarest species in decline. We find this isn’t the case, and in fact the species that would seem to be robust are instead most susceptible to the changing world around us.”
Professor Jonathan Chase of the Leipzig-based German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and one of the study’s authors.
The insect losses matter because they are part of the ecosystem as mentioned and they pollinate. Pollination is vital in terms of feeding the vast human population.
“Rare species capture a lot of natural wonder. Common species lack this enigma and charm, but often they are the ones that support ecosystems,” said Dr. Gergana Daskalova, an ecologist who wasn’t involved in the study.
The study is published in the journal Nature. The information comes from Europe and North America. That’s a caveat because it doesn’t cover the entire world.
The reason why there’s a picture of a car splattered with dead bugs is because nowadays you are much less likely to have your car splattered in this way. In fact I can remember years ago (1970s) driving on country lanes and seeing the bugs splatter on my windscreen but for many years now I’ve never seen it and we don’t get bugs on the grill of our cars. The research simply highlights once again the human pressures placed upon all of the world’s species of flora and fauna.
The study: van Klink, R., Bowler, D.E., Gongalsky, K.B. et al. Disproportionate declines of formerly abundant species underlie insect loss. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06861-4
