Krefeld is now a term in world of ecologists. First he stood for a question: Tell me where insects are. "Where have all insects gone?" asked science in May, a science magazine that is read around globe by researchers.
But this guiding medium of natural sciences had not reported about project of a lower Rhine Institute or a university, but of field research of local hobby-insect scientists (entomologists). about how members of Entomological Association Krefeld have trapped flying insects in painstakingly volunteer work. They have set up traps in protected areas, most of which were in North Rhine-Westphalia, one in Rhineland-Palatinate, five in Brandenburg. Ever less hovering, wild bees and moths had been able to collect m over years, so much was already known. and a number from nature reserve Orbroicher Bruch brought it to prominence in past election campaign summer, when Federal Ministry of Environment indicated that studies showed "declines (...) By up to 80 percent ". Could this be more than an extreme value?
In meantime re is answer from Krefeld: In year 2016 flew, buzzed and floated hobby researchers on average 76 percent less six legged animals in ir traps than in beginning year of measurements 1989. "This widespread decline in insect biomass is alar The ", Krefelder wrote in October toger with Dutch and British scientists in journal PLoS One," First of all, since all traps were set up in protected areas, which are supposed to preserve ecological diversity. "
If this is now being talked about nationwide, even abroad, n that says a lot about a overlooked ecological problem.
The special thing about this study is view of insect population: everything that krefelders collected over 27 years has also been weighed. Sounds banal, but rarely happens. "This is first long-term study of entire biomass of flying insects and refore of great importance," says Alexandra-Maria Klein, professor of nature Conservation and landscape ecology in Freiburg. While some specialized researchers are keeping track of ir objects – such as wild bees, moths and butterflies – in detail, insects as a whole lacked measure so far. No class in animal kingdom is more numerous than this, alone in this country, experts suspect 33 000 species, but re has never been a comprehensive census of this diversity.
READ ALSO "The truth on Six legs" by Bernd Ulrich in time No. 44/2017. Here you can read entire output.First, overall data is still quite meagre. Second, however, as soon as someone looks at a snippet, individual findings seem troubling:
• Of nearly 600 wild bee species in Germany, every second is classified as endangered.
• According to a new red list from last year, 31% of all species of locust are threatened in territory of European Union.
• Butterfly counts in Europe indicate a sharp decline.
• Federal government data, reevaluated by conservationists, show a 15 percent decline in bird Brutpaaren between 1998 and 2009. Almost all affected species feed ir cubs with insects.
• The World Conservation Union, guardian of "Red List of endangered Species", captures trends of certain insect species. Of m, every third world is considered to be dwindling.
Date Of Update: 27 October 2017, 12:03
