European
insect populations shrink as farming leaves ‘hardly any room for nature’
Mon 1 Apr
2019 11.47 BSTLast modified on Mon 1 Apr 2019 13.36 BST
Butterflies
have declined by at least 84% in the Netherlands over the last 130 years, according to
a study, confirming
the crisis affecting insect populations in western Europe.
Researchers
analysed 120,000 butterflies caught by collectors between 1890 and 1980 as well
as more recent scientific data from more than 2 million sightings to identify
dramatic declines in the country’s 71 native butterfly species, 15 of which
have become extinct over the last century.
“We are
quite sure that the real decline must be much larger,” said Chris van Swaay,
of Dutch
Butterfly Conservation and one of the co-authors of the study.
The research
follows warnings of catastrophic insect declines after a global review
calculated that the total mass of insects was falling by
2.5% each year, and a German study found average flying insect abundance
had declined by 76%
over 27 years.
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