Insects are dying worldwide, researchers warn of disaster

it is becoming Increasingly clear that the insects do not die takes place only in Germany, where it was first demonstrated scientifically. The loss of insects, a world-wide phenomenon. If it is not possible to stop him, may have "catastrophic" consequences, write the authors of an overview article in the journal Biological Conservation, in which you have gathered, what is know about the worldwide insect die known.

the Team of Australian Ecologists Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, from the Sydney Institute of Agriculture evaluated 73 studies. The majority of them not studied the insects die in General, but the decline of certain species of insects. However, combining these investigations, it turns out that all the orders of insects are affected by the loss of Almost half of all the species of insects is thus strong; a third is threatened with extinction. All of this apparently happened at breakneck pace: each year, the biomass of the insects go back to 2.5 percent, the authors write. If it is so on, are insects extinct in 100 years, probably.

That self-adaptable animals are struggling to Survive, suggests that a lot of shortcomings.

Particularly dramatic, and the loss is according to the authors, in the case of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera), the skin wing (Hymenoptera) bees, those wasps, but also ants, and dung beetles. A study, which is included in the analysis, as evidenced, for example, that the number of butterflies in rural regions of great Britain fell in the period from 2000 to 2009 by 58 percent. Another study shows that half of all species of Bumblebee, which was held in 1949 in the US state of Oklahoma, was gone in 2013.

it is Alarming that many so-called generalists are dwindling – species so, the feel in many different habitats, welfare and different food can use sources. Such animals actually at risk as less as they can adapt to changes much better than "specialists". This need, for example, a certain Plant to survive. This plant is not in a Region, for example, because it can tolerate the over-fertilization of the soil, the disappearance of these Plant-dependent animals.

man is the cause

As the most important cause for the worldwide Dying of the insects of the Team, Sánchez has identified Bayo the loss of habitat, mainly through intensive agriculture and the building of cities and roads. The second most important cause of the mass use of fertilizer and pesticides such as the Neonicotinoids, which attack the nervous system of all insects and their lethal effect, therefore, is not only to pests is limited. Thirdly, the insects were in the world, also by biological factors, under pressure, invasive parasites, like the varroa mite, for example, which infests honey bees and kill.

in fourth place, the authors call climate change. After all, what we know so far, is detrimental to the increase of the temperature, especially of insects in the tropics. This life-often already at the top of what can withstand your body limit. A slight rise in temperatures may be, for such animals, then, too much and the Population to collapse. (Editorial Tamedia)

Created: 12.02.2019, 13:03 PM