Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Olympia, WA, United States of America.
Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Jun 20;19(6):e0304319. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304319. eCollection 2024.
Mounting evidence shows overall insect abundances are in decline globally. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides have all been implicated, but their relative effects have never been evaluated in a comprehensive large-scale study. We harmonized 17 years of land use, climate, multiple classes of pesticides, and butterfly survey data across 81 counties in five states in the US Midwest. We find community-wide declines in total butterfly abundance and species richness to be most strongly associated with insecticides in general, and for butterfly species richness the use of neonicotinoid-treated seeds in particular. This included the abundance of the migratory monarch (Danaus plexippus), whose decline is the focus of intensive debate and public concern. Insect declines cannot be understood without comprehensive data on all putative drivers, and the 2015 cessation of neonicotinoid data releases in the US will impede future research.
越来越多的证据表明，全球昆虫数量总体呈下降趋势。栖息地丧失、气候变化和杀虫剂的使用都被认为是导致昆虫数量减少的原因，但它们的相对影响从未在一项全面的大规模研究中得到评估。我们对美国中西部五个州 81 个县的 17 年土地利用、气候、多类杀虫剂和蝴蝶调查数据进行了协调。我们发现，蝴蝶总数量和物种丰富度的普遍减少与杀虫剂的使用密切相关，特别是与使用新烟碱类杀虫剂处理的种子有关。这包括迁徙蝴蝶（大桦斑蝶，Danaus plexippus）数量的减少，其减少是目前密集讨论和公众关注的焦点。如果没有对所有潜在驱动因素的全面数据，就无法理解昆虫的减少，而 2015 年美国停止发布新烟碱类杀虫剂的数据将会阻碍未来的研究。
