Enlarge image
butterflies (icon image)
Photo: Mila Drumeva / iStockphoto / Getty Images
Insects are suffering from the loss of biological diversity.
A team led by Jan Christian Habel from the University of Salzburg has now analyzed temporal trends in butterflies and zygaenid butterflies in the northern Austrian state of Salzburg between 1920 and 2019.
The result: The butterflies in Central Europe died in two large waves.
»Spektrum« reported on the study and it was published in the journal »Science of The Total Environment«.
The study area covers a wide variety of regions and elevations, the study says.
During the study period and shortly before, various changes in land use and intensification occurred: A first wave of species decline began in the late 19th century, followed by a deterioration in habitat quality from the mid-20th century.
»This trend has continued to be negative to this day«
The authors see an important turning point in the 1960s.
Accordingly, the second wave coincides with the beginning of the industrialization of agriculture in Central Europe after the Second World War.
According to Thomas Schmitt, one of the authors, the intensive use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers could also be responsible, as quoted by the Senkenberg Museum.
»As a result, many near-natural elements of the cultural landscape disappeared, such as poor valley meadows rich in flowers with their high biodiversity.
This trend has continued to be negative to this day«.
For the study, around 60,000 data on the occurrence of 168 butterfly and moth species were evaluated.
Each of these species was classified based on ecological characteristics, and the study identified two major trends in community composition.
"These time windows coincide with periods characterized by severe habitat destruction and habitat quality degradation due to agricultural intensification," the study states.
"We found that the proportion of species that require certain habitats has decreased significantly since 1920 and up to now."
an