Global Ecosystem Collapse…That Must be Bad By Brian Simpson

     A number of sites are running the headline “the global ecosystem is rapidly collapsing”:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-19-the-global-ecosystem-is-collapsing-insect-biomass-decline-decimation-pollinators-scientists.html

     The decimation of much of the world’s ecology is not new, but certain peak events are now beginning to stand out, like a 75 percent decline in insect biomass in Germany over the last 27 years, as one recent scientific paper documents:

“Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.”:
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809&type=printable

     The ecological collapse of insect populations will have a kick-on effect right across ecosystems, for insects play an important role in pollination, and are really indispensable for the practical continuation of the human food supply. The effects of chemical pollutants, insecticides and GMO exposure all have a part to play in killing off the insect world. There needs to be a rapid look at what chemical pollution is doing to our world, for this problem threatens to finish off mankind before anything else. Without a reliable food supply, the human animal will soon go extinct.

 

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Friday, 29 March 2024

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