A LESS COLORFUL WORLD - Jeremy Barnes

In recent years casual observation has suggested that both the number and variety of birds visiting our feeders was declining. Turns out, it was not my imagination.

Two studies were eye-opening and disturbing. The first, in 2006 in the journal BioScience, The Economic Value of Ecological Services Provided by Insects, evaluated the vital ecological services provided by ‘wild’ insects’ by focusing on four crucial services they provide: dung burial, pest control, pollination, and nutrition for wildlife. The answer? $57 billion in the US alone. That is about $156 million per day, or in excess of $100 000 per minute. I suspect that only the US military spends more per hour.

The second, published in PLOS One in 2017, looks at changes in flying insect biomass…

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