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      More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

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          Abstract

          Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.

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          Inference from Iterative Simulation Using Multiple Sequences

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            The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects

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              Decline and conservation of bumble bees.

              Declines in bumble bee species in the past 60 years are well documented in Europe, where they are driven primarily by habitat loss and declines in floral abundance and diversity resulting from agricultural intensification. Impacts of habitat degradation and fragmentation are likely to be compounded by the social nature of bumble bees and their largely monogamous breeding system, which renders their effective population size low. Hence, populations are susceptible to stochastic extinction events and inbreeding. In North America, catastrophic declines of some bumble bee species since the 1990s are probably attributable to the accidental introduction of a nonnative parasite from Europe, a result of global trade in domesticated bumble bee colonies used for pollination of greenhouse crops. Given the importance of bumble bees as pollinators of crops and wildflowers, steps must be taken to prevent further declines. Suggested measures include tight regulation of commercial bumble bee use and targeted use of environmentally comparable schemes to enhance floristic diversity in agricultural landscapes.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: SoftwareRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Formal analysisRole: ResourcesRole: SoftwareRole: Validation
                Role: Data curationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: Project administrationRole: ResourcesRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: InvestigationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: ResourcesRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                2017
                18 October 2017
                : 12
                : 10
                : e0185809
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Radboud University, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Animal Ecology and Physiology & Experimental Plant Ecology, PO Box 9100, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
                [2 ] Entomological Society Krefeld e.V., Entomological Collections Krefeld, Marktstrasse 159, 47798 Krefeld, Germany
                [3 ] University of Sussex, School of Life Sciences, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, United Kingdom
                University of Saskatchewan, CANADA
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4630-0522
                Article
                PONE-D-17-28249
                10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
                5646769
                29045418
                2e7a5c5b-d43d-46d9-a02a-390c5bdc05d9
                © 2017 Hallmann et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 28 July 2017
                : 19 September 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 5, Tables: 4, Pages: 21
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003246, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek;
                Award ID: 840.11.001
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003246, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek;
                Award ID: 841.11.007
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: Triodos Foundation
                Award Recipient :
                CH and EJ were supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grants 840.11.001 and 841.11.007), and NH by the Triodos Foundation. The investigations of the Entomological Society Krefeld and its members are spread over numerous individual projects at different locations and in different years. Grants and permits that have made this work possible are listed below: Bezirksregierungen Düsseldorf & Köln, BfN - Bundesamt für Naturschutz, Land Nordrhein-Westfalen - Europäische Gemeinschaft ELER, Landesamt für Agrarordnung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz Nordrhein-Westfalen, Landesamt für Umwelt Brandenburg, Landesamt für Umwelt Rheinland-Pfalz, LVR - Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Naturschutzbund Deutschland, Nordrhein-Westfalen Stiftung, RBN Bergischer Naturschutzverein, RVR - Regionalverband Ruhr, SGD Nord Rheinland-Pfalz, Universitäten Bonn, Duisburg-Essen & Köln, Untere Landschaftsbehörden: Kreis Düren, Kreis Heinsberg, Kreis Kleve, Kreis Viersen, Kreis Wesel & AGLW, Stadt Düsseldorf, Stadt Köln, Stadt Krefeld, Rheinisch Bergischer Kreis, Rhein Kreis Neuss & Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. Members of the Entomological Society Krefeld and cooperating botanists and entomologists that were involved in the empirical investigations are greatly acknowledged: U.W. Abts, F. Bahr, A. Bäumler, D. & H. Beutler, P. Birnbrich, U. Bosch, J. Buchner, F. Cassese, K. Cölln, A.W. Ebmer, R. Eckelboom, B. Franzen, M. Grigo, J. Günneberg, J. Gusenleitner, K. Hamacher, F. Hartfeld, M. Hellenthal, J. Hembach, A. Hemmersbach, W. Hock, V. Huisman-Fiegen, J. Illmer, E. Jansen, U. Jäckel, F. Koch, M. Kreuels, P. Leideritz, I. Loksa, F. B. Ludescher, F. J. Mehring, G. Milbert, N. Mohr, P. Randazzo, K. Reissmann, S. Risch, B. Robert, J. de Rond, U. Sandmann, S. Scharf, P. Scherz, J. Schiffer, C. Schmidt, O. & W. Schmitz, B. P. & W. Schnell, J. L. Schönfeld, E. Schraetz, M. Schwarz, R. Seliger, H. W. Siebeneicher, F. & H. Sonnenburg W. J. S. & P. Sorg, A. Ssymank, H. Sticht, M. Weithmann, W. Wichard and H. Wolf.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Animals
                Invertebrates
                Arthropoda
                Insects
                Earth Sciences
                Seasons
                Earth Sciences
                Geography
                Human Geography
                Land Use
                Social Sciences
                Human Geography
                Land Use
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Ecology
                Ecological Metrics
                Biomass (Ecology)
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Ecology
                Ecological Metrics
                Biomass (Ecology)
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Conservation Science
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Ecology
                Plant Ecology
                Plant Communities
                Grasslands
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Ecology
                Plant Ecology
                Plant Communities
                Grasslands
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Plant Science
                Plant Ecology
                Plant Communities
                Grasslands
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Terrestrial Environments
                Grasslands
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Ecology
                Ecological Metrics
                Species Diversity
                Ecology and Environmental Sciences
                Ecology
                Ecological Metrics
                Species Diversity
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Eukaryota
                Plants
                Herbs
                Custom metadata
                All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

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