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Vanishing act: Why insects are disappearing and why it matters

Christian Schwägerl
Environment 360
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:27 UTC
According to global monitoring data for 452 species, there has been a 45 percent decline in invertebrate populations over the past 40 years.
© Science
According to global monitoring data for 452 species, there has been a 45 percent decline in invertebrate populations over the past 40 years.
Insect populations are declining dramatically in many parts of the world, recent studies show. Researchers say various factors, from monoculture farming to habitat loss, are to blame for the plight of insects, which are essential to agriculture and ecosystems.

Every spring since 1989, entomologists have set up tents in the meadows and woodlands of the Orbroicher Bruch nature reserve and 87 other areas in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The tents act as insect traps and enable the scientists to calculate how many bugs live in an area over a full summer period. Recently, researchers presented the results of their work to parliamentarians from the German Bundestag, and the findings were alarming: The average biomass of insects caught between May and October has steadily decreased from 1.6 kilograms (3.5 pounds) per trap in 1989 to just 300 grams (10.6 ounces) in 2014.

"The decline is dramatic and depressing and it affects all kinds of insects, including butterflies, wild bees, and hoverflies," says Martin Sorg, an entomologist from the Krefeld Entomological Association involved in running the monitoring project.

Another recent study has added to this concern. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt have determined that in a nature reserve near the Bavarian city of Regensburg, the number of recorded butterfly and Burnet moth species has declined from 117 in 1840 to 71 in 2013. "Our study reveals, through one detailed example, that even official protection status can't really prevent dramatic species loss," says Thomas Schmitt, director of the Senckenberg Entomological Institute.

Six-spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae)
© Lairich Rig
Six-spot Burnet Moth (Zygaena filipendulae)

Comment: Considering the fact that world wildlife populations have declined by 50% since 1970, it would be wise for those individuals who are responsible to take notice of these statistics. But unfortunately, it doesn't seem like "global industry leaders" will stop polluting and destroying the environment any time soon, since there are always profits to be made from the sale of toxic pesticides and other chemical pollutants.

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Arrow Down

Tractor has near miss with 10-foot wide sinkhole in field at Rehobeth, Alabama

Jim Cook
Dothan Eagle
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:02 UTC
James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
© JAY HARE / DOTHAN EAGLE
James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
A few feet to the right or left and James Harrell could have had a big problem on his hands.

Harrell discovered a 10-foot wide sink hole in his peanut field last week. Just a few days prior, a tractor had been plowing the field and just missed rolling over the area where the hole is located.

"If that tractor had been right here, it could have caved it," he said. "That would have been ugly."

This isn't Harrell's first experience with a sinkhole. About 40 years ago, Harrell drove a combine over a sinkhole on some farm property in Cottonwood.

"The frame of the combine was the only thing that kept it from falling all the way in the hole," he said. "I stepped out of the cab onto the roof and was on the ground."

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Cloud Lightning

Hong Kong hit by 10,000 lightning flashes within 12 hours

Ernest Kao
South China Morning Post
Sun, 10 Jul 2016 11:07 UTC
Twelve hours of thunder, lightning and rain has the city talking about a night to remember

Twelve hours of thunder, lightning and rain has the city talking about a night to remember
The city was hit by a whopping 10,000 bolts of lightning during an epic 12-hour overnight thunderstorm, with even meteorologists taken aback by the intensity.

Hong Kong residents were barely starting to cool down from the hottest July day in half a century when the Observatory issued a thunderstorm warning at 6.45pm on Saturday, alerting the public to seek shelter and get off high ground.

In more than five hours up to 12am, the Observatory recorded 5,905 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, most of them hitting Lantau Island and the New Territories. An amber rainstorm warning was issued on top of that at 9.55am, as downpours lashed parts of Hong Kong with more than 30 millimetres of rain.


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Alarm Clock

Increased activity at Pavlof Volcano, Alaska raises alert level

Betty Laseter
Maine News Online
Mon, 04 Jul 2016 08:06 UTC
Pavlof volcano
© U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Mount Pavlof in Alaska is still showing signs of seismic activity and steam emissions indicating a possible eruption by the end of the year.
Last week, the Alaska Volcano Observatory observed increased seismic activity and steam emissions from Pavlof Volcano. The movement has raised the volcano's alert level. Located on the southwestern end of the Alaska Peninsula, the volcano is among the most active in Alaska, with over 40 recorded eruptions, as per the observatory.

Most recently, the volcano erupted in May. In March, an eruption sent ash plumes nearly 40,000 feet over sea level.

The observatory noted that eruptive activity may occur with slight or no warning, and scientists are looking forward to closely monitor the volcano continuously. However, geophysicist David Schneider told Alaskan radio station KUCB that the current activity of Pavlof is normal.

He said, "Pavlof is among those volcanoes that can erupt without very much in way of precursory activities. It's very easy for magma to arise in volcano and make it out. So even subtle signs of unrest we think it's prudent to increase our alert level".

The Alaska Dispatch News reported that the volcano's eruption in May marked the first time in two decades when notable ash-fall was recorded on the ground. The Dispatch News reported that one-eighth to two-thirds of an inch of ash had hit Nelson Lagoon, a village consisting of 39 people 55 miles northwest of the volcano.
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Arrow Down

California's Lassen Peak is sinking and volcanologists don't know why

Ada Carr
The Weather Channel
Thu, 30 Jun 2016 07:11 UTC
Lassen Peak
© US Geological Survey/Amanda Sweeney
A view of Lassen Peak in California from the south of the summit of Brokeoff Volcano in Lassen Volcanic National Park.
With no explosion in over a century, it might appear that California's Lassen Peak hasn't changed much. However, recent findings show the volcano has been slowly sinking for the past three decades, but volcanologists can't figure out why.

In a recent study, researchers used multiple sets of data from an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to look at the more than 10,000-foot high volcano located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and track characteristics of deformation in the peak's vicinity between 1992 and 2010. They discovered that there was a broad range of sinking measuring about 18 to 24 miles and progressing at the rate of about a centimeter per year.

InSAR uses radar images of earth's surface to track changes on the ground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Unlike visible or infrared light, radar waves are able to see through clouds and are equally effective in the dark, allowing researchers to see changes at night and during bouts of bad weather, which comes in handy during a volcanic crisis. The images collected by the radar are compared to each other to determine if there was any movement of the ground surface.

The scientists' research lead them to believe that this slow sinkage of Lassen Peak has been going on since the 1980s. They believe the source of the sinking is a point located about 5 miles beneath the volcano's center.

"Time-series analysis suggests that the rate of volume change of this source may have varied over time," the researchers wrote. "The source geometry and the temporal evolution of deformation contrasts to subsidence observed at nearby Medicine Lake Volcano since the 1950s."

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Cloud Precipitation

Millions displaced as record rainfall hits China

CCTV News
You Tube
Wed, 06 Jul 2016 13:28 UTC
China floods
The floods have displaced millions of people and caused billions of yuan in direct economic losses.

Roads and expressways have been devastated and excavators have been used to rescue trapped passengers.

Almost a thousand vehicles have been trapped on an expressway, after flooding destroyed 135 meters of road.

Traffic police got fast food and water to the trapped drivers and passengers.

CCTV's Ding Siyue has the details.

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Fish

Fish shoal filmed on flooded streets of Wuhan, China

CCTV News
You Tube
Thu, 07 Jul 2016 13:03 UTC
Fish seen on flooded streets of central China's Wuhan

Fish seen on flooded streets of central China's Wuhan
Wuhan, the capital city of central China's Hubei Province, is on red alert for more heavy rainfall.

Now, after the torrential downpours overnight, the city has been inundated.

In the latest video showing the current scene of the downtown area, plenty of fish were seen swimming in the flooded streets.

Take a look.

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Cloud Precipitation

3 inch hailstones bombard Glen Arbor, Michigan

Mark Torregrossa
mlive.com
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 12:10 UTC
Large hail churning the waters of Lake Michigan around 11 a.m., July 8, 2016.
© Paul May
Large hail churning the waters of Lake Michigan around 11 a.m., July 8, 2016.
A severe hail storm formed over Lake Michigan and moved onshore in Leelanau County July 8, 2016.

There were official reports of three inch hail in the Glen Arbor area around 11 a.m. July 8, 2016.

Here is a video shot by Pete Kurty at the Homestead in Glen Arbor. You are looking at the Crystal river as it is bombarded by large hail.

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Cloud Lightning

62 killed and 140 injured by lightning strikes since mid-April in Nepal


The Kathmandu Post
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 10:28 UTC
Lightning
As many as 109 people have been killed—47 in landslides and flooding and 62 in lightning bolts—and 197 others have been injured in such natural disasters since April 13, Minister for Home Affairs Shakti Basnet told Parliament on Friday.

According to the data prepared by the Ministry of Home Affairs, lightning was the leading cause of death across the country and Makawanpur and Dhading are the districts where the highest number of casualties by lightning was recorded.

According to Basnet, 121 cases of flood and landslide were reported during the period. At least 16 persons from around a dozen districts have gone missing. Similarly, 112 houses have been destroyed, while 160 houses have been partially damaged due to rain-induced disasters.
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Cloud Lightning

Lightning bolt kills three people in Bangladesh


bdnews24.com
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 10:20 UTC
Lightning
Three people in Amtali Tea Estate in Bahubal of Habiganj have been killed by lightning, police say.

The dead include brothers Sanjay Ura, 22, and Dipak Ura, 14, and their neighbour, 'Rajni', whose age could not be known immediately.

All three were labourers at the tea estate. Another, 'Biplob', 14, was injured and rushed to Habiganj Sadar Hospital for treatment.

Confirming the incident, Bahubal OC Mollah Monir Hussain said that tragedy struck in the form of lightning at 8pm on Friday and led to the instant death of the three.

The brothers were at home when the lightning struck, the OC said.
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