70 scientists have warned about the impact of climate change. "If we do not take action to better understand and reduce the impact of climate change on insects, we will greatly limit our chances of a sustainable future for a healthy ecosystem." This warning comes from a paper published in a timely manner by 70 experts from 19 countries in the journal Ecology Monograph. However, they also provide management techniques and methods to help insects in a warming world.
Yes, we have heard of insect decay before. But we have not made much progress in stopping it globally. Climate change is still the most important problem in the world. "Climate change has exacerbated other human-mediated environmental problems, including habitat loss and fragmentation, various forms of pollution, overfishing and invasive species," said Jeffrey Harvey of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) and Vrije University in Amsterdam.
He led the main papers of an international team of scientists. They provide a clear outline of how extreme climates and climate change lead to insect reduction.
Local environmental characteristics can harm or benefit insects (left image), especially when insects are exposed to extreme climates such as drought and heat waves. Ecologically targeted management strategies (pictured right) can help insects adapt to climate change and other environmental problems caused by humans. Source: Dutch Institute of Ecology, scientists’ warnings on climate change and insects
This paper is part of a series of scientists’ warnings. "Insects play a key role in so many ecosystems, but we are quickly losing at least a portion of them," Harvey emphasized the urgency. And that seems to be the case, especially in temperate areas. The authors emphasize that both longer-term events and short-term extremes are harming insects in several ways.
"The gradual increase in global surface temperature affects the physiology, behavior, phenology, distribution and interactions between species". Harvey added. "But at the same time, more and more lasting extreme events will leave their marks. Alternating hot and cold, fires, droughts, floods..." Evidence of the impact of
is piled up and all are presented in this comment. For example, fruit fly , butterfly and flour beetle can survive in heat waves, but males or females become sterile and thus cannot reproduce. They become "living dead". Bumblebee in particular proved to be very sensitive to heat, and climate change is now considered a major factor in the decline of several North American species.
The impact of climate change on insects can be divided into two categories: gradual long-term changes and extreme events, with increasing frequency and severity of these events. Interventions include formal mitigation of changes through policy and public approaches, which in turn help reduce impacts in various ways.
"Cold-blooded insects are one of the most severely affected by climate change, because their body temperature and metabolism are closely related to the temperature of the surrounding air," Harvey said. In a warming world, a major problem with insect reduction is that plants – the food and shelter on which insects rely on – are also affected by climate change. And as insect populations decrease, it in turn affects the upstream of the food chain. For example, this has happened to many birds over the past few decades.
Think about pollination, pest control, nutrient circulation and waste decomposition. Insects represent the vast majority of biodiversity and perform extremely important services to maintain human civilization, all of which are of amazing value (billions of dollars) per year to the global economy. This is another reason to act on climate change. "The late famous ant ecologist Edward O-Wilson once thought, 'It's the little things that manage the world. And they do!' said Harvey. "As time goes by, as the world warms, insects must adjust their seasonal life cycles and distributions. However, their ability to do so is hindered by threats posed by other humans, such as habitat destruction and fragmentation, and threats from insecticides. In addition, heat waves and droughts can dramatically harm insect populations in the short term, making insects less unable to adapt to more gradual warming.Warming at different time scales poses different kinds of threats to insects. "
Importantly, scientists not only describe these issues, but also discuss a range of solutions and management strategies. These may help buffer the impact of insects on climate warming. Individuals can help by caring for many different wild plants, providing food and insects that can escape extreme climates. And by reducing the use of insecticides and other chemicals. On a larger scale, we need to deal with climate change. The wildization program also needs to consider micro-scale ecosystems, which focus on protecting small animals such as insects. "
" Insects are tenacious little animals, and we should breathe a sigh of relief because there is still room to correct our mistakes, but time is not too long. We really need to develop policies to stabilize the global climate. At the same time, at the government and individual level, we can all get involved to make urban and rural landscapes more insect-friendly."
