Agriculture and climate change are reshaping insect biodiversity worldwide

Outhwaite, Charlotte L.; McCann, Peter; Newbold, Tim

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04644-x

Cited by 234 publications

(190 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…In combination, agricultural intensification (including loss of natural habitat and widespread pesticide usage) and climate change are bound to have deep impacts on insects [49], and their effects are deeply intertwined. A recent attempt to tease these effects apart [50] analysed a staggering number of time-replicated samples, but since almost all of these (99.7%) were obtained in less than 2 years, they are not directly applicable to ascertain the longer-term trends with which we are concerned.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect decline in Brazil: an appraisal of current evidence

et al. 2022

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Recent reviews of data on worldwide insect decline include almost no information on Brazil. We gathered evidence from literature searches and a survey sent to researchers, to which 96 replied and 56 provided information and publications. We present 75 instances of trends recorded over an average span of 11 years for aquatic and 22 years for terrestrial insects. These include time-replicated samples and expert opinion based on long-term local collections. Most terrestrial data are for butterflies, bees and scarab beetles. Aquatic studies include several insect orders, usually sorted to genus or family. Terrestrial insects showed significantly more cases of declines than increases, both in abundance (17 : 3) and in diversity (11 : 1). In aquatic cases, no tendency was detected in abundance (2 : 2) or diversity (3 : 4), not counting cases with no trend. Differences in these results among habitats may be due to the shorter span and less change in environmental conditions in the aquatic surveys, which included sites already degraded before sampling. We offer guidelines for future long-term assessments, including resampling of legacy collection sites.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insect decline in Brazil: an appraisal of current evidence

et al. 2022

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“…Assessment of insect time-series data has shown declines in several insect groups, but data have been taxonomically and geographically biased with most reports originating from Europe and North America (Saunders et al, 2020;Van Klink et al, 2020). Both continents are characterised by a long history of agricultural land use and thus intensive agriculture is often considered the main driver of insect decline (Forister et al, 2016;Hallmann et al, 2017;Outhwaite et al, 2022;Raven & Wagner, 2021;Seibold et al, 2019;Wepprich et al, 2019). Given the current geographic bias, it remains unclear if insect declines are truly global, or are regional phenomena driven by context-specific land-use changes and other factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate‐driven divergent long‐term trends of forest beetles in Japan

et al. 2022

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Concerning declines in insect populations have been reported from Europe and the United States, yet there are gaps in our knowledge of the drivers of insect trends and their distribution across the world. We report on our analysis of a spatially extensive, 14‐year study of ground‐dwelling beetles in four natural forest biomes spanning Japan's entire latitudinal range (3000 km). Beetle species richness, abundance and biomass declined in evergreen coniferous forests but increased in broadleaf‐coniferous mixed forests. Further, beetles in evergreen coniferous forests responded negatively to increased temperature and precipitation anomalies, which have both risen over the study's timespan. These significant changes parallel reports of climate‐driven changes in forest tree species, providing further evidence that climate change is altering forest ecosystems fundamentally. Given the enormous biodiversity and ecosystem services that forests support globally, the implications for biodiversity change resulting from climate change could be profound.

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“…There is also an abundance of scientific evidence that shows that rotating crops, such as corn or soy, with livestock grazed on cover crops can improve soil health [ 18 ], sequester carbon [ 14 , 19 ], and increase the abundance of pollinating insects [ 20 ]. High-intensity agriculture with low crop diversity will decrease insect biodiversity [ 21 ]. A long-term study conducted in Ontario Canada showed that soybean monocultures were detrimental to soil health [ 22 ].…”

Section: Insight From Learning That Animals Are Part Of the Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grazing Cattle, Sheep, and Goats Are Important Parts of a Sustainable Agricultural Future

Grandin

2022

Animals

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Many people believe that animal agriculture should be phased out and replaced with vegetarian substitutes. The livestock industry has also been attacked because it uses vast amounts of land. People forget that grazing cattle or sheep can be raised on land that is either too arid or too rough for raising crops. At least 20% of the habitable land on Earth is not suitable for crops. Rotational grazing systems can be used to improve both soil health and vegetation diversity on arid land. Grazing livestock are also being successfully used to graze cover crops on prime farmland. Soil health is improved when grazing on a cover crop is rotated with conventional cash crops, such as corn or soybeans. It also reduces the need for buying fertilizer. Grazing animals, such as cattle, sheep, goats, or bison, should be used as part of a sustainable system that will improve the land, help sequester carbon, and reduce animal welfare issues.

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Agriculture and climate change are reshaping insect biodiversity worldwide

Cited by 234 publications

References 58 publications

Insect decline in Brazil: an appraisal of current evidence

Insect decline in Brazil: an appraisal of current evidence

Climate‐driven divergent long‐term trends of forest beetles in Japan

Grazing Cattle, Sheep, and Goats Are Important Parts of a Sustainable Agricultural Future

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