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This sounds pretty surprising to me since I thought I kept hearing that insects were in decline globally. This made me curious. One thing I often check is who

by stx 6y ago

This sounds pretty surprising to me since I thought I kept hearing that insects were in decline globally. This made me curious. One thing I often check is who the author(s) are and what their links to industry might be. For example if the paper claims that "Smoking is good for you in moderation" and then after googling the author I find they have ties to Marlboro I start to doubt the authenticity of the research. In this case the authors are mostly organizations that from what I can tell do not have any affiliation with for example an insecticide company or even a company. The only non organization author I see listed is Michael S. Crossley. I googled him and did not find anything suspicious. He does not appear to have a background in entomology or ecology. I am not really sure if that is reason to be suspicious but just thought I would share. Here is a link about one of the authors: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/people/michael-w-crossley/index.html http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/people/michael-w-crossley...

AlotOfReading 6y ago
You've linked Michael W. Crossley, the lead author is Michael S. Crossley. The google scholar profile for the latter matches the contact email in the paper and shows a history of related work. [1] https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X5W_3dYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X5W_3dYAAAAJ&hl=en...
P4wl0w 6y ago
I suppose it all comes down to the methods to measure - just like with COVD statistics. Because one method does not come to the same conclusion others do does not automatically prove that it really is that way.
spiderfarmer 6y ago
The research that says insects are in decline seems highly questionable to me. They don’t differentiate per species and measure per kilogram. If some heavier species like moths have a successful couple of years, they heavily skew the statistics. There also is not a lot of data on insect populace and the data that is there doesn’t go back for a very long period. I think most articles cite one local German research project on the topic.

by stx 6y ago

AlotOfReading 6y ago

You've linked Michael W. Crossley, the lead author is Michael S. Crossley. The google scholar profile for the latter matches the contact email in the paper and shows a history of related work. [1] https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X5W_3dYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=X5W_3dYAAAAJ&hl=en...

P4wl0w 6y ago

I suppose it all comes down to the methods to measure - just like with COVD statistics. Because one method does not come to the same conclusion others do does not automatically prove that it really is that way.

spiderfarmer 6y ago

The research that says insects are in decline seems highly questionable to me. They don’t differentiate per species and measure per kilogram. If some heavier species like moths have a successful couple of years, they heavily skew the statistics. There also is not a lot of data on insect populace and the data that is there doesn’t go back for a very long period. I think most articles cite one local German research project on the topic.