'One of Most Disturbing Articles I Have Ever Read' Scientist Says of Study Detailing Climate-Driven 'Bugpocalypse'
"A
truly scary new study finds that insect populations in protected
Puerto Rican rainforests have fallen as much as 60-fold."
"This
study in PNAS is a real wake-up call—a clarion call—that the
phenomenon could be much, much bigger, and across many more
ecosystems," David Wagner, an invertebrate conservation expert
at the University of Connecticut. (Photo: Alias
0591/Flickr/cc)
When
a scientist who studies the essential role insects play in the health
of the ecosystem calls a new study on the dramatic decline of bug
populations around the world "one
of the most disturbing articles"
he's ever read, it's time for the world to pay attention.
"Climate
warming is the driving force behind the collapse of the forest's
food web."
—Bradford Lister and Andres Garcia
—Bradford Lister and Andres Garcia
The article in question is a report published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that in addition to annihilating hundreds of mammal species, the human-caused climate crisis has also sparked a global "bugpocalypse" that will only continue to accelerate in the absence of systemic action to curb planetary warming.
"This
study in PNAS is a real wake-up call—a clarion call—that the
phenomenon could be much, much bigger, and across many more
ecosystems," David Wagner, an invertebrate conservation expert
at the University of Connecticut, said in response to the new report.
"This is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read."
Authored
by Bradford Lister of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Andres
Garcia of National Autonomous University of Mexico, the study found
that "[a]rthropods, invertebrates including insects that have
external skeletons, are declining at an alarming rate."
"We
compared arthropod biomass in Puerto Rico's Luquillo rainforest with
data taken during the 1970s and found that biomass had fallen 10 to
60 times," the researchers write. "Our analyses revealed
synchronous declines in the lizards, frogs, and birds that eat
arthropods. Over the past 30 years, forest temperatures have risen
2.0 °C, and our study indicates that climate warming is the driving
force behind the collapse of the forest's food web. If supported by
further research, the impact of climate change on tropical ecosystems
may be much greater than currently anticipated."
As
the climate crisis intensifies, Lister and Garcia continued, "the
frequency and intensity of hurricanes in Puerto Rico are expected to
increase, along with the severity of droughts and an additional 2.6–7
°C temperature increase by 2099, conditions that collectively may
exceed the resilience of the rainforest ecosystem."
"Holy
crap," Wagner of the University of Connecticut told
the Washington
Post when
he learned of the 60-fold drop of bug populations in Puerto Rico's
Luquillo rainforest. "If anything, I think their results and
caveats are understated. The gravity of their findings and
ramifications for other animals, especially vertebrates, is
hyperalarming."
The
latest disturbing evidence of the destruction the climate crisis is
inflicting across the globe comes just a week after the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that
the world must cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 in order to avert
global catastrophe as soon as 2040.
"Unfortunately,
we have deaf ears in Washington," concluded Louisiana State
University entomologist Timothy Schowalter, who has studied the
Luquillo rainforest for decades.
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