Could rising CO2 levels be causing an insect apocalypse?

Prof. Marcus Byrne

Insect numbers are in decline across the planet. Should we worry? Entomologist Marcus Byrne believes we should. Insects perform countless ecosystem services. These are little jobs in the background that are massively important for our survival and that of the rest of the planet. So, what is the cause of this loss of insects? Marcus suggests that we don’t know for sure. The reasons could be anything from our widespread use of pesticides to habitat loss due to human-driven development. However, his research points strongly to the global increase of CO2 in the atmosphere as the most probable reason for this decline.

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Marcus Byrne is a professor of entomology at Wits University, South Africa, where he teaches zoology and entomology. He grew up in the UK and despite being terrified of its limited fauna he avidly watched Jacques Cousteau and David Attenborough on the TV. Moving to South Africa, he got a job as a technician at the Dung Beetle Research Unit in Pretoria. At the time the unit was exporting African dung beetles to control dung-breeding flies in Australia. This experience opened his eyes to two wonderful aspects of insects; firstly biological control where one organism is used to control the population of another, and secondly dung beetles, which are enigmatic little insects that continue to entertain him to this day, 30 years after first encountering them.