Yes, we’ve heard about insect decline before. But no, we haven’t done much to stop it on a worldwide scale. Climate change is at the top of the world’s to-do list. Something that coincides very well with the COP 27 climate change conference in Egypt from 6 - 18 November. ‘Climate change aggravates other human-mediated environmental problems,’ says Jeffrey Harvey from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. ‘Including habitat loss and fragmentation, various forms of pollution, overharvesting and invasive species.’ He leads the major paper by an international team of scientists. Together, they provide a convincing overview of the role of climate change and climatic extremes in driving insect decline.
The paper is part of the Scientists’ Warning series. ‘Insects play critical roles in so many ecosystems, but we are rapidly losing at least part of them,’ Harvey stresses the urgency. And this seems the case especially in temperate regions. The authors emphasise that both longer-term events and short-term extremes are harming insects in several ways.
‘The gradual increase in global surface temperature impacts insects in their physiology, behaviour, phenology, distribution and species interactions.’ Harvey adds: ‘But also, more and longer lasting extreme events leave their traces.’ Hot and cold spells, fires, droughts, floods.
The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO)
The Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) conducts basic and strategic research on organisms, populations, ecological communities and ecosystems on land and in water. Its researchers study how living organisms interact with one another and their environment. They examine nature in the broadest sense of the word: from the DNA of bacteria to the biodiversity of ecosystems. Such knowledge helps society avert or solve problems related to nature and the environment and take informed decisions about how to keep Earth habitable.
Examples of impacted insects: emperor dragonfly, Quino Checkerspot butterfly, yellow-banded bumblebee and hyperparasitoid Gelis agilis (from upper left to lower right). Sources: Wageningen University & Research