ArticleBiology letters2021
Pervasive decline of subtropical aquatic insects over 20 years driven by water transparency, non-native fish and stoichiometric imbalance.
Article in Biology letters, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Differing Impacts of Livestock Farming and Ranching on Aquatic Insect Biodiversity: A Global Meta-Analysis.Global change biology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: what are the prospects?Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Aquatic-terrestrial linkages drive contrasting biodiversity patterns in tropical and temperate forests.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Habitat Diversity Mitigates the Impacts of Human Pressure on Stream Biodiversity.Global change biology · 2024Article
- Systematic challenges and opportunities in insect monitoring: a Global South perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- The Present and Future of Insect Biodiversity Conservation in the Neotropics: Policy Gaps and Recommendations.Neotropical entomology · 2023Review
- Less overall, but more of the same: drivers of insect population trends lead to community homogenization.Biology letters · 2023Article
- Fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages reveal extensive degradation of the world's rivers.Global change biology · 2023Article
- Human pressure drives biodiversity-multifunctionality relationships in large Neotropical wetlands.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Insect decline in Brazil: an appraisal of current evidence.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Recent trends in stream macroinvertebrates: warm-adapted and pesticide-tolerant taxa increase in richness.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Pervasive decline of subtropical aquatic insects over 20 years driven by water transparency, non-native fish and stoichiometric imbalance.Biology letters · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Insect abundance and diversity are declining worldwide. Although recent research found freshwater insect populations to be increasing in some regions, there is a critical lack of data from tropical and subtropical regions. Here, we examine a 20-year monitoring dataset of freshwater insects from a subtropical floodplain comprising a diverse suite of rivers, shallow lakes, channels and backwaters. We found a pervasive decline in abundance of all major insect orders (Odonata, Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Megaloptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera and Diptera) and families, regardless of their functional role or body size. Similarly, Chironomidae species richness decreased over the same time period. The main drivers of this pervasive insect decline were increased concurrent invasions of non-native insectivorous fish, water transparency and changes to water stoichiometry (i.e. N : P ratios) over time. All these drivers represent human impacts caused by reservoir construction. This work sheds light on the importance of long-term studies for a deeper understanding of human-induced impacts on aquatic insects. We highlight that extended anthropogenic impact monitoring and mitigation actions are pivotal in maintaining freshwater ecosystem integrity.
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