Death by a thousand cuts – Global threats to insect populations

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Today, hundreds of bug species face extinction and thousands more are critically endangered. insects conservation exctinction

A few insects recently went extinct such as the Cascade funnel-web spider which was first described in 1926 and was officially declared extinct in 1995 due to urbanisation.The levuana moth of Fiji also went extinct - it was the target of an intense eradication campaign in the early 20th century due to its primary food source, coconuts, being one of the island nation's biggest exports.

This moth can no longer be found in Fiji, though some naturalists hope it still survives on other Pacific islands further west. Approximately 99 percent of species that have walked the Earth are now extinct, having disappeared because of changes in the environment or the appearance of new ones, leading to a constant turnover. The rate of extinction, however, has never been as high as it is today.EcoWatch, in a set of studies published in February 2019 and April 2020, as well as a roadmap released in January 2020 by 73 scientists, detailed ways in which we could turn the tide on the steady decline of insect populations.

As the new research explains, human stressors that experts have tied to bug declines include agricultural practices; chemical, light, and sound pollution; invasive species; land-use changes; nitrification; pesticides; and urbanisation.Extracted from the graphic above published by EcoWatch, the below further explains how human activities are having an ongoing negative impact on global insect populations.Climate change is affecting insect ranges globally due to human movements.

Pesticides have a massive impact on insect populations as these usually have a blanket effect, killing all insects present, including those which are beneficial to agriculture.The tropics lost 11.9 million hectares of forest in 2019, mostly to animal agriculture and palm plantations, decreasing biodiversity to unsustainable levels.

 

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