Payne Charlotte L R, Van Itterbeeck Joost
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QY, UK.
College of Arts, Department of History, Rikkyo University, Tokyo 171-8501, Japan.
Insects. 2017 Feb 17;8(1):24. doi: 10.3390/insects8010024.
Many of the most nutritionally and economically important edible insects are those that are harvested from existing agricultural systems. Current strategies of agricultural intensification focus predominantly on increasing crop yields, with no or little consideration of the repercussions this may have for the additional harvest and ecology of accompanying food insects. Yet such insects provide many valuable ecosystem services, and their sustainable management could be crucial to ensuring future food security. This review considers the multiple ecosystem services provided by edible insects in existing agricultural systems worldwide. Directly and indirectly, edible insects contribute to all four categories of ecosystem services as outlined by the Millennium Ecosystem Services definition: provisioning, regulating, maintaining, and cultural services. They are also responsible for ecosystem disservices, most notably significant crop damage. We argue that it is crucial for decision-makers to evaluate the costs and benefits of the presence of food insects in agricultural systems. We recommend that a key priority for further research is the quantification of the economic and environmental contribution of services and disservices from edible insects in agricultural systems.
许多在营养和经济方面最为重要的可食用昆虫都是从现有的农业系统中收获的。当前农业集约化战略主要侧重于提高作物产量，而对这可能给伴随的食用昆虫的额外收获和生态带来的影响考虑甚少或根本没有考虑。然而，这类昆虫提供了许多有价值的生态系统服务，对它们的可持续管理对于确保未来粮食安全可能至关重要。本综述探讨了全球现有农业系统中可食用昆虫所提供的多种生态系统服务。可食用昆虫直接或间接地为千年生态系统服务定义中所概述的所有四类生态系统服务做出贡献：供给服务、调节服务、支持服务和文化服务。它们也会造成生态系统负服务，最显著的是对作物造成严重损害。我们认为，决策者评估农业系统中食用昆虫存在的成本和收益至关重要。我们建议，进一步研究的一个关键优先事项是量化农业系统中可食用昆虫的服务和负服务对经济和环境的贡献。
