Submitted by PHealthy t3_11ebbka in askscience
lollroller t1_jaese3z wrote
Reply to comment by PHealthy in Are we past the tipping point for the insect population decline? by PHealthy
No, I don’t think so. I’ve read that “article” before, but admittedly have not pursued the primary studies.
The meta-analyses they quote range from:
“In 2020, three large metaanalyses appeared, two of which focused on insects. The first, van Klink et al. (17, 18), examined 166 studies with demographic data spanning 9 to 80 y. Their assessment, driven largely by European and North American datasets, suggested terrestrial insects were declining at a rate close to 1% per year, while aquatic insects appeared to be increasing in abundance, again by about 1% per year.”
To:
“Crossley et al.’s (51) metaanalysis of insect demographic data (spanning 4 to 36 y) for 15 long-term ecological research sites across the United States, reported no evidence of a continent-wide decline of insect abundance.”
They repeatedly mention loss of habitat, while conveniently leaving out that the vast, vast surface area of the planet remains unaffected by humans. Of course human encroachment and loss of habitat have and will continue to cause populations to geographically shift, but I can see no reasonable mechanism by which it will cause insect species to become extinct, let alone cause mass extinctions.
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