Krefeld is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, between Düsseldorf and Duisburg. And home of Entomological Association Krefeld, in which volunteer insect scientists have been interested in insect-dying in Germany for decades and have refore collected data for decades.
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Scientists around Caspar Hadley from Dutch Radboud University in Nijmegen have evaluated this data of Krefeld insect collectors. At 63 different locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Brandenburg hobby-Entomologists had since 1989 established special network devices, so-called Malaise-traps, in which fly insects are buzzing into a collecting container and re Be preserved. In all se years a biomass of 53.54 kilograms was collected. The analysis showed that insect mass collected annually has shrunk by more than 75 percent over last 27 years.
In specialist magazine Plos One, scientists from Germany, Great Britain and Nerlands called work convincingly and warned of a massive death of flying insects. The analysis of data and publication of results prove that shrinkage not only relates to individual sites, but is “really a größerflächiges problem”, said biologist Josef Settele from Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Halle. The total annual mass of invertebrates decreased by around 76 percent in average. The decline was strongest at almost 82 percent in middle of summer when most insects buzz around. “A loss has been suspected for a long time, but it is even greater than previously assumed,” said study author Caspar Hadley.
“Our grandchildren inherit a highly impoverished world”
Dave Goulson, co-author of study at British Sussex University, was concerned about se developments: “Insects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth. It seems that we are making large land lines uninhabitable for most forms of life, and are currently on course to an ecological Armageddon. In current path, our grandchildren will inherit a highly impoverished world. “
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The methodology of investigation is permissible according to peers. At most of sites studied, samples were taken only in one year of study period, traps were emptied at regular intervals and total mass of trapped insects was determined. Subsequently, researchers moved within certain habitats – such as heath landscapes, fallow land or grass landscapes – to compare how biomass had changed over time.
As a possible cause of insect leakage, scientists have introduced climate factors, increasing agricultural use and so-called habitat factors. The study did not come to a clear explanation. According to scientists, a link between intensified agriculture and insect death is obvious.
Is intensive farming blamed on insects dying?
The increasing use of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as year-round management, probably played a role, but re was no clear scientific evidence for this assumption. Teja Tscharntke, for example, a Agrarökologe of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, sees in intensification of agriculture a plausible cause for “dramatic insect decline”. It is also crucial that in large fields re are often only a few narrow field margins, hedges and shrubs that insects could use as habitats.
Representatives of German peasant Confederation contradicted this representation and called for furr investigation: “In view of fact that detection of insects was carried out exclusively in protected areas, premature conclusions are prohibitive in direction Agriculture, “said General secretary Bernhard Krüsken. “The new study confirms and stresses that re is still an urgent need for research on extent and causes of insect decline shown.”
The President of Nature Conservation Federal Nabu, Olaf Tschimpke, called study results “highly dramatic and threatening” and demanded new federal government to use it for a change of course in agricultural policy at EU level.
In summary, authors of study found that loss of insects is greater than previously assumed – and could have a devastating effect. The loss of insects also has a cascade effect on or organisms and has far-reaching consequences for ecosystems as a whole. Also Alexandra-Maria Klein, landscape ecology from Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, calls for collection of furr long-term data to clarify causes of insect extinction. One should not, however, “wait for se results until we change our land use,” said Klein. “This might be too late for some insects.”
