Trying to save 'the little things that run the world'

A red-belted bumblebee, found in New England, though less so than decades ago.

“Garden in the Woods,’’ in Framingham, Mass. A perfect place for pollinators.

—Photo by Daderot

Text excerpted from an ecoRI News article

KINGSTON, R.I.

Steven Alm and Casey Johnson in the University of Rhode Island Bee Lab want property owners to think small. Though the creatures at issue are tiny, the issues the duo is examining are anything but trivial. In fact, the issues they are studying are bellwethers for larger issues facing the natural world.

They want to reminding us of the importance of, as E.O. Wilson said, “the little things that run the world.”

A professor at URI and keeper of the university’s Insect Collection, which dates to the late 1800s, Alm is concerned about the insect loss he has witnessed in the course of his career, never mind the species that now only exist in pinned specimen form, no longer in the wild.

“We’re in trouble with the insects,” he said. Birds, fish, and other members of the food web need insects, but their numbers are dwindling. Pollinators in particular are vulnerable.

Entomologists are seeing notable declines in insect diversity worldwide, caused by habitat loss, introduced species, novel pathogens, pesticides, pollution, and climate change.

To read the whole article, hit this link.