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Insect biomass decline of 75% (‘‘Krefeld-Study’’, Hallmann & al., 2017)
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40% threatened by extinction of insect species studied (Sánchez-Bayo & al., 2019)
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Insect biomass, abundance and species number decreased by 67%, 78% and 34% in German grasslands between 2008 and 2017 (Seibold & al., 2019)
Factors influencing grassland insect diversity
The decline in insect diversity observed on global (Citation: Sánchez-Bayo & al., 2019) Sánchez-Bayo, F. & Wyckhuys, K. (2019). Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. Biological Conservation, 232. 8–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.020 and regional scale (Citation: Hallmann & al., 2017) Hallmann, C., Sorg, M., Jongejans, E., Siepel, H., Hofland, N., Schwan, H., Stenmans, W., Müller, A., Sumser, H., Hörren, T., Goulson, D. & Kroon, H. (2017). More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas. In Lamb, E. (Eds.), PLOS ONE, 12(10). e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809 is a major threat. Besides habitat loss and agricultural intensification is one of the main drivers of insect decline. In addition to social and political pressure, there are ecological and economic reasons for promoting insect diversity in agricultural landscapes. Insects provide important ecosystem services such as pollination, decomposition of organic material or biological pest control and play a central role in the food web of nature, e.g. as food for insectivorous birds. These four ecosystem services provided by insects alone are therefore estimated to be worth US$57 billion per year in the USA (Losey & Vaughan 2006). In a recent study, insect biomass was shown to have declined by 2/3 in grasslands as well (Citation: Seibold & al., 2019) Seibold, S., Gossner, M., Simons, N., Blüthgen, N., Müller, J., Ambarlı, D., Ammer, C., Bauhus, J., Fischer, M., Habel, J., Linsenmair, K., Nauss, T., Penone, C., Prati, D., Schall, P., Schulze, E., Vogt, J., Wöllauer, S. & Weisser, W. (2019). Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests is associated with landscape-level drivers. Nature, 574(7780). 671–674. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1684-3 .
Heattree
Agri-environmental measures (AES)
Aims The main objective of this study was to investigate the influence of environmental drivers on grassland insect biomass and diversity. Specifically, we asked
- Do AES relate to insect biomass and diversity in grasslands in Bavaria?; and
- Do landscape structures, different management strategies and vegetation influence the biomass and diversity of insects?
Bibliography
- Sánchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys (2019)
- Sánchez-Bayo, F. & Wyckhuys, K. (2019). Worldwide decline of the entomofauna: A review of its drivers. Biological Conservation, 232. 8–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2019.01.020
- Hallmann, Sorg, Jongejans, Siepel, Hofland, Schwan, Stenmans, Müller, Sumser, Hörren, Goulson & Kroon (2017)
- Hallmann, C., Sorg, M., Jongejans, E., Siepel, H., Hofland, N., Schwan, H., Stenmans, W., Müller, A., Sumser, H., Hörren, T., Goulson, D. & Kroon, H. (2017). More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas. In Lamb, E. (Eds.), PLOS ONE, 12(10). e0185809. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
- Seibold, Gossner, Simons, Blüthgen, Müller, Ambarlı, Ammer, Bauhus, Fischer, Habel, Linsenmair, Nauss, Penone, Prati, Schall, Schulze, Vogt, Wöllauer & Weisser (2019)
- Seibold, S., Gossner, M., Simons, N., Blüthgen, N., Müller, J., Ambarlı, D., Ammer, C., Bauhus, J., Fischer, M., Habel, J., Linsenmair, K., Nauss, T., Penone, C., Prati, D., Schall, P., Schulze, E., Vogt, J., Wöllauer, S. & Weisser, W. (2019). Arthropod decline in grasslands and forests is associated with landscape-level drivers. Nature, 574(7780). 671–674. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1684-3