“A scary new study finds that insect populations in protected Puerto Rican rain-forests have fallen as much as 60-fold.”

A scientist who studies the important role insects play in our ecosystems, called a new study, “one of the most disturbing reports” he’s ever read. Maybe it’s time for the world to listen carefully.

“Climate warming is the driving force behind the collapse of the forest’s food web.”
—Bradford Lister and Andres Garcia

The report was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). It shows that humans are not only killing hundreds of mammal species, but are also causing a global “bugpocalypse”. This will continue unless we slow down global warming.

“This study in PNAS is a real wake-up call. These extinctions could be much, much bigger, and across many more ecosystems,” said David Wagner, an insect conservation expert at the University of Connecticut.

“This is one of the most disturbing articles I have ever read.”

The report was written by Bradford Lister of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Andres Garcia of National Autonomous University of Mexico. It found that “[a]rthropods, are declining at an alarming rate.”

“We compared arthropod biomass in Puerto Rico’s Luquillo rainforest with data taken during the 1970s. We found that biomass had fallen 10 to 60 times,” the researchers write. “Our research also revealed 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 worsens, Lister and Garcia continued, “the frequency and strength of hurricanes in Puerto Rico are expected to increase. The severity of droughts and a 2.6–7 °C temperature increase by 2099 may exceed the resilience of the rain forest 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 are understated. The importance of their findings and consequences for other animals is very alarming.”

The latest evidence of the destruction the climate crisis is causing across the globe, comes just a week after the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. It warned that the world must cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 in order to avoid global disaster as soon as 2040.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/16/one-most-disturbing-articles-i-have-ever-read-scientist-says-study-detailing-climate