Insects within alcohol Malaise trapENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY KREFELD Sampling from 63 protected nature areas throughout Germany, researchers have found a drop in flying insect mass by about 76 percent over 27 years. The results, published today (October 18) in PLOS ONE, are drastic, but are consistent with prior studies of butterflies, wild bees, and other surveys of specific insect species.
“The amount of decline, about 75 percent, is way too much to be attributed to just one or a few species such as bees or butterflies,” says plant ecologist and study author Hans de Kroon of Radboud University in the Netherlands. “These results are not from agricultural areas but natural preserves that are well-maintained and meant to protect biodiversity. We are seeing insects slipping out of our hands.”
De Kroon, along with Caspar Hallmann and others from Radboud University, paired up with colleagues from Entomological Society Krefeld in Germany who had begun collecting nature preserve insect biomass data more than two decades ago. “[Our colleagues] are excellent field biologists who were visionary and realized it was important to collect this broader insect population data,” says ...
