In Germany, Almost All Insects Mysteriously Disappeared, Environmentalists Say

Video: In Germany, Almost All Insects Mysteriously Disappeared, Environmentalists Say

Video: In Germany, Almost All Insects Mysteriously Disappeared, Environmentalists Say
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In Germany, Almost All Insects Mysteriously Disappeared, Environmentalists Say
In Germany, Almost All Insects Mysteriously Disappeared, Environmentalists Say
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In Germany, almost all insects mysteriously disappeared, ecologists say - insects
In Germany, almost all insects mysteriously disappeared, ecologists say - insects

The number of virtually all insects has decreased by 75-82% in all reserves and national parks in Germany, the reason for which is not yet clear and the consequences of which can be extremely serious, ecologists say in an article published in PLoS One.

"All those corners of nature that we studied are nature reserves, whose territory is protected by law and the authorities of Germany. Despite this, in all of them the number of insects has dropped sharply. Perhaps this was due to the fact that they are all surrounded by agricultural land, where insects simply cannot survive, "said Caspar Hallmann of Radbud University, Germany.

In recent years, ecologists and biologists have become seriously concerned that the species diversity and abundance of many insects have begun to decline sharply in recent years.

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For example, recent observations in Britain have shown that six species of the most common butterflies may disappear from the island in the coming years, and the prevalence and number of many species of wild bees in South America may decline sharply by the end of the century.

Hallmann and his colleagues found out that the scale of this ecological catastrophe is greatly underestimated today, having carried out a kind of "population census" in six dozen nature reserves created in Germany over the past century.

The countless number of insects living in every corner of the Earth makes it difficult to carry out such calculations directly, and therefore scientists carry out them by setting special traps in the territory of national parks and counting the number of insects that fall into them over a certain period of time.

Comparing the weight and number of individuals in such a "catch", one can understand how the species diversity and number of insects change over time.

Insect trap in the park

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Such observations, Hallmann says, paint a disastrous picture in recent years. According to scientists, the number and biomass of insects has decreased by about 75% and 82% in all sixty reserves, despite the huge differences in climate, flora and fauna between them.

For example, in 1990, about 10 grams of insects fell into traps every day, and today this figure has decreased to 2 grams per day. This sharp drop, as the researchers note, could lead to the collapse of all ecosystems - it affected not only various predatory and parasitic insects, but also pollinators.

The reasons for this are not yet clear, however, German ecologists suggest that the decrease in the number of pollinators and other insects may be associated with the intensification of agriculture and the spread of herbicides, which reduce biodiversity among plants and limit the distribution paths of invertebrate inhabitants of forests and meadows that feed on their leaves, wood and pollen.

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