Weather explains the decline and rise of insect biomass over 34 years

Jörg Müller (), Torsten Hothorn, Ye Yuan, Sebastian Seibold, Oliver Mitesser, Julia Rothacher, Julia Freund, Clara Wild, Marina Wolz and Annette Menzel
Additional contact information
Jörg Müller: University of Würzburg
Torsten Hothorn: University of Zurich
Ye Yuan: Ecoclimatology, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich
Sebastian Seibold: Ecosystem Dynamics and Forest Management Research Group, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich
Oliver Mitesser: University of Würzburg
Julia Rothacher: University of Würzburg
Julia Freund: University of Würzburg
Clara Wild: University of Würzburg
Marina Wolz: University of Würzburg
Annette Menzel: Ecoclimatology, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich

Nature, 2024, vol. 628, issue 8007, 349-354

Abstract: Abstract Insects have a pivotal role in ecosystem function, thus the decline of more than 75% in insect biomass in protected areas over recent decades in Central Europe1 and elsewhere2,3 has alarmed the public, pushed decision-makers4 and stimulated research on insect population trends. However, the drivers of this decline are still not well understood. Here, we reanalysed 27 years of insect biomass data from Hallmann et al.1, using sample-specific information on weather conditions during sampling and weather anomalies during the insect life cycle. This model explained variation in temporal decline in insect biomass, including an observed increase in biomass in recent years, solely on the basis of these weather variables. Our finding that terrestrial insect biomass is largely driven by complex weather conditions challenges previous assumptions that climate change is more critical in the tropics5,6 or that negative consequences in the temperate zone might only occur in the future7. Despite the recent observed increase in biomass, new combinations of unfavourable multi-annual weather conditions might be expected to further threaten insect populations under continuing climate change. Our findings also highlight the need for more climate change research on physiological mechanisms affected by annual weather conditions and anomalies.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06402-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:628:y:2024:i:8007:d:10.1038_s41586-023-06402-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06402-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().