{"id":27022,"date":"2017-10-19T11:47:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T16:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27022"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:47:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T16:47:42","slug":"warning-of-ecological-armageddon-after-dramatic-plunge-in-insect-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27022","title":{"rendered":"Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Insects<\/picture><\/div>
Flying insects caught in a malaise trap, used by entomologists to collect samples. Photograph: Courtesy of Entomologisher Verein Krefeld<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.<\/p>\n

Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies<\/a> were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is \u201con course for ecological Armageddon\u201d, with profound impacts on human society.<\/p>\n

The new data was gathered in nature reserves across Germany but has implications for all landscapes dominated by agriculture, the researchers said.<\/p>\n

The cause of the huge decline is as yet unclear, although the destruction of wild areas and widespread use of pesticides are the most likely factors and climate change may play a role. The scientists were able to rule out weather and changes to landscape in the reserves as causes, but data on pesticide levels has not been collected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the number of flying insects is decreasing at such a high rate in such a large area is an alarming discovery,\u201d said Hans de Kroon, at Radboud University in the Netherlands and who led the new research.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsects make up about two-thirds of all life on Earth [but] there has been some kind of horrific decline,\u201d said Prof Dave Goulson of Sussex University, UK, and part of the team behind the new study. \u201cWe appear to be making vast tracts of land inhospitable to most forms of life, and are currently on course for ecological Armageddon. If we lose the insects then everything is going to collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning of ‘ecological Armageddon’ after dramatic plunge in insect numbers Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists say Flying insects caught in a malaise trap, used by entomologists to collect samples. Photograph: Courtesy of Entomologisher Verein Krefeld The abundance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16591,16589,16590,12305,16592,6917],"class_list":["post-27022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-damian-carrington","tag-ecological-armageddon","tag-entomology","tag-insects","tag-pollination","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27023,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27022\/revisions\/27023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}