ArticleEcology and evolution2020
Quantifying rapidly declining abundance of insects in Europe using a paired experimental design.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- A finely annotated dataset for the automated acoustic identification of European Orthoptera and Cicadidae.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Life on Green Patches: Diversity and Seasonal Changes of Butterfly Communities Associated With Wastelands of the Post-Industrial Central European City.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
- Gene expression differences consistent with water loss reduction underlie desiccation tolerance of natural Drosophila populations.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Article
- Review
- Pre-fledging quality and recruitment in an aerial insectivore reflect dynamics of insects, wetlands and climate.Oecologia · 2021Article
- Article
- Quantifying rapidly declining abundance of insects in Europe using a paired experimental design.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The abundance of insects has decreased for the last decades in many parts of the world although so far few studies have quantified this reduction because there have only been few baseline studies dating back decades that have allowed comparison of ancient and recent population estimates. Such a paired design is particularly powerful because it reduces or eliminates bias caused by differences in identity and experience of observers, identity of study sites, years, time of season, and time of day, and it ensures identity of sampling procedures. Here, I compiled information on the reduction in abundance of insects in Europe and Algeria by the same persons compiling the abundance of insects from the same 21 study sites during 1951-1997 and again a second time in 1998-2018. There was a reduction by 47% in the abundance of insects. The difference in abundance in old compared to new samples declined with latitude, with a significant variance among taxa. This reduction in abundance of insects was of such a magnitude that it must have consequences for insectivores and the role that insects play in ecosystems.
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Registered trials
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