insects – envirobites

Without insects, we wouldn’t have all of the edible plants that we rely on as important parts of our diets and entire ecosystems would be in trouble. Despite their importance, insects face many threats, including climate change. Through a literature review, a group of scientists found that increasing temperatures due to climate change and the resulting ecosystem changes are a leading cause of insect population declines globally. Some species have disappeared completely. However, different species respond to climate change differently. Monitoring and understanding their responses can help us prevent their loss.

Cities Ecosystems

Dead and Gone? – The loss of decaying wood communities in urban forests

March 3, 2021March 3, 2021 Brandi Pessman 0 Comments decomposition, forests, fungi, insects, wood

Forests are beautiful. From flourishing plants to tranquil wildlife to decaying logs, all parts are beautiful, vital, and connected. Dead logs are responsible for maintaining a healthy forest thanks to teams of fungi and wood-dependent insects inside. These organisms break down plant material to add nutrients back to the ecosystem. Forests are essential for human health and well-being, but human disturbance could threaten these ecosystems. To keep our forests healthy and beautiful, we depend on these decomposers, but can they rely on us?

Environmental Science

Moving into the Hyporheic Zone

September 10, 2020September 10, 2020 Garrett Frandson 0 Comments Climate Change, hyporheic zone, insects, streams

Climate change is causing some alpine streams to change from always flowing to flowing only part of the time. This is a challenge that the bugs in those streams have not had to face, but the might have a way out: hunkering down in the hyporheic zone, a subsurface component of the stream. By waiting out drought in this new environment, the bugs might be able to come back and resume life as normal when conditions are more favorable.

Ecosystems Environmental Science

We’re crossing these bridges (and streams)

July 14, 2020July 14, 2020 Garrett Frandson 0 Comments human impacts, insects, road, streams

Crossing a stream on a drive may feel like a treat, but would bugs residing in the stream feel the

Ecosystems

To bugs in streams, fine sediment is not so fine

April 14, 2020April 14, 2020 Garrett Frandson 0 Comments agriculture, insects, water, water quality

Clearing land for agriculture often leads to decreased flow velocities and in increase in fine sediment additions in nearby streams. While many stream bugs rely on small fine sediments, too much of it can detrimentally affect them. Changes to flow velocities and inputs of fine sediment in affected streams are not always equal in magnitude, so an experiment was run to see the responses of aquatic macroinvertebrates to various combinations of flow and sediment conditions. The scientists found fine sediments negatively impacted almost all stream bugs and that low flows exacerbated the problem.

Ecosystems Remote Environments

Bugs from the deep: hyporheic stoneflies contribute much to their Ozark streams

March 16, 2020March 16, 2020 Garrett Frandson 0 Comments insects, Ozarks, secondary production, water

Buried beneath the streambed is another environment home to a population of bugs more important to their local streams than ever before thought!

Environmental Science Remediation

Junk food fit for the bugs

February 17, 2020February 19, 2020 Mary Davis 0 Comments insects, plastic, Pollution

Some “food” doesn’t have much nutritional value… and this is certainly true of plastic! Some bug larvae seem to be eating plastic, but they don’t live very long as a result. In a recent study, researchers experimented with different diet supplements to improve larvae’s ability to live off of plastic.

Environmental Science

The thieving, bribing lives of plants

December 26, 2019January 15, 2020 Kara Cromwell 0 Comments behaviour ecology, Ecology, insects, plants

There’s more to these leaves than their soft and fuzzy side–the fine hairs trap drifting pollen grains, which the plant can use to bait arthropods to stop by for a snack of pollen and stick around to munch on pests that harm the plant.

Climate Environmental Science

Native milkweed supports healthy monarch communities

August 28, 2019August 21, 2019 Ashley Riane Booth 0 Comments behaviour ecology, butterflies, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecology, insects, invasive species, invertebrates, milkweed, monarch butterflies

“Monarch butterflies do really well on the exotic milkweed species that’s being widely sold and planted under current environmental conditions. But under warmer conditions, the exotic plant becomes too toxic and monarchs become less healthy.”

Ecosystems Environmental Science

Dropping Like Flies: Two Fungi Might Have What it Takes to Stop Spotted Lanternfly.

June 28, 2019June 25, 2019 Abigail Bezrutczyk 0 Comments biocontrol, Ecology, fungi, insects, invasive species

Spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is a threat to apple and grape crops in the northeast– research in biocontrol may help to stop the spread of this invasive insect.

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