BERLIN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Germany is witnessing a dramatic decline in native insect populations which endangers the survival of entire ecosystems, a study published on Thursday warned.
According to the study which appeared in the academic journal "Plos one", German insect populations have shrunk by an average of 76 percent since 1989.
"In the middle of the summer, when many insects are at their peak", an even larger decline of 82 percent was measured, the study authors wrote.
Healthy insect populations are crucial to the functioning of wider ecosystems, ensuring the pollination of flowers amongst others.
The researchers based their findings on measurements of the mass of insects caught in traps installed in 63 locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Rhineland-Palatinate over the course of the past 27 years.
The longitudinal study was widely-anticipated by environmental scientists as a source of data on a potential trend of declining insect populations in a quality that was previously unattainable. Insect populations naturally experience substantial variation from year to year, making it necessary to conduct studies over larger periods of time to arrive at meaningful findings.
"This publication proves that we are really confronted with a wider phenomenon", Josef Settele of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Halle said in the newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ).
Johannes Steidle, ecologist at the University of Hohenheim further pointed to the worrying circumstance that all probes in the study were taken in nature reserves.
"If the biomass of insects is already declining so dramatically in protected areas, the development in unprotected ecosystems must be at least as serious", Steidle told SZ.
