Insect populations in Finland are showing signs of serious change resulting from global warming, possibly leading to less effective pollination of plants, German researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) reported on Tuesday.
The team, which included researchers from Halle Wittenberg University and the Halle-Jena-Leipzig Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, counted insects on blossoms in the thinly populated region of Kittilä in Lapland.
They then compared their results with data collected by foresters more than 120 years ago.
The same species of insects and plants were involved in only 7% of the observations conducted. The figure was surprisingly low, they said.
Hover flies and moths in particular were seen on the blossoms much more rarely. This is problematic, as these groups include highly effective pollinators, they wrote.
Another disturbing trend, according to the researchers, is the far lower number of insects specialised in particular types of blossom.
They had been replaced by certain flies that visit many different plant species, but these so-called generalists are possibly not as effective as pollinators.
“Thus far, the pollinator network in our research area appears nevertheless to work well,” Leana Zoller of Halle Wittenberg University said. “So far, there are no indications that the plants are getting too little pollen and are then less able to propagate.”
But this could change if more changes took place in the insect population. At some point, the plants would not be able to make up for declines in their pollinator network, she said.
— dpa
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
