The existing boundaries of national parks and other habitat preserves aren’t enough to protect more than three-quarters of the world’s well-studied insects.
The finding, reported February 1 in One Earth, shows that people who design nature preserves “don’t really think about insects that much,” says coauthor Shawan Chowdhury, an ecologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research in Leipzig.
That’s a problem because insect populations around the globe are plummeting, a growing body of research suggests, probably due to climate change and human development (SN: 4/26/22). For instance, insect abundance in Puerto Rico has dropped by up to 98 percent over the last 35 years.
Threats to insect survival could have ripple effects on plants and other animals. Insects help form the foundation for many ecosystems: They pollinate around 80 percent of all plant species and serve as a staple in the diets of hundreds of thousands of animals (and the occasional carnivorous plant).
One way to avert insect extinctions is to set aside the land they need to survive. But scientists know the ranges for only about 100,000 of the estimated 5.5 million insect species. To determine how well existing protected areas may be aiding insect conservation, Chowdhury and colleagues mapped the known habitats of about 89,000 of those species and compared the ranges with the boundaries of preserves from the World Database on Protected Areas.
2023-02-01 11:00:00
Original from www.sciencenews.org
A recently released study has found that up to 76 percent of well-known insect species are located outside of protected areas. This research has major implications, as insects are a crucial part of global ecosystems, and their decline could have serious consequences.
Insects are essential to the functioning of ecosystems all over the world, playing a role in pollination, breaking down detritus, and providing a food source for other species. The recent report, published by the journal Biological Conservation, used data from 15 countries to analyze the proportion of insect species found in areas that have some form of legal protection. The results showed that only 24 percent of insect species are located within these protected areas.
The scientists behind the study warn that the declining number of insects is an alarming indicator of a much larger problem. The threats facing insects today include habitat loss and fragmentation, as well as climate change and pollution. The report also emphasizes that legal protection alone is not enough to ensure conservation. Other measures, such as limiting light pollution and banning harmful pesticides, should also be taken.
The issue is of particular concern due to the potential implications for other species within food webs. A wide range of species such as frogs, fish, and birds are dependent on insects as their main source of food. If these vital prey populations reduce, these species will also suffer, as well as the environments they inhabit.
The scientists involved in the study concluded that more efforts should be made to protect insects by creating new protected areas and increasing the management of existing ones. Without effective conservation measures, the overall health of global ecosystems could be put in jeopardy.