Scientists said about the mass disappearance of insects in Germany

2017-10-19 14:26

Scientists said about the mass disappearance of insects in Germany
The researchers came to the conclusion that the biomass of flying insects in the German national parks for the past 27 years has decreased by more than 75%.

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According to researchers, over the past 540 million years ago, our planet has faced five big mass extinctions, and about 20 smaller-scale, reports Rus.Media. The most famous was the Cretaceous-Paleogene, what happened 65 million years ago, when all dinosaurs went extinct. The most ambitious is “great” Permian extinction took place 250 million years ago. Then disappeared over 95% of marine species and 70% of vertebrate species.

Experts still can’t confidently name the reasons for all, or at least the largest extinctions. The relevance of this theme gives the idea that we also live in one of these periods. Not all experts share that view, but now researchers from Germany found additional evidence of the disaster being experienced by the flora and fauna of the Earth.

Hallmann Caspar (Caspar Hallmann) from the University of Radboud (Germany) and his colleagues conducted a “census” among insects in six German national parks. This is made possible through special traps into which the insects over a certain period of time. In the analysis of the mass and the number of “caught” creatures can understand how a change in their number over the past decade.

The results obtained are now extremely worried scientists. Despite differences in climate, flora and fauna reserves, in all cases, there was a massive disappearance of insects. Their total biomass in 27 years dropped by 76%. This is the average seasonal decline: specifically, in the middle of summer, the figure was 82%.

If in 1990 in the trap every day got about 10 grams of insects, now this figure has decreased to 2 grams. The consequence could be the collapse of nearly all existing ecosystems. Moreover, scientists can not yet anything to speak confidently about the causes of this phenomenon. Experts only suggest that the reason may lie in the intensification of agriculture, which entails, in particular, the distribution of chemicals, reduce plant diversity.