"So far, such data are only available for a few insect groups and for selected regions. To improve on the status quo, we need urgent assessments of all types of insects in all parts of the world," says Roel van Klink, senior researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the lead editor of the special issue.
Challenges in distinguishing vast numbers of insect species have traditionally hindered comprehensive studies. However, recent technological advances are facilitating extensive global insect assessments. Various techniques, such as acoustic monitoring, light attraction and photography, remote sensing via radar and laser, and DNA analysis from environmental traces, are now being utilized to identify and track insects.
"These novel methods have enormous potential to close the vast data gaps we have for insects. They can give us new, more and better data at lower costs in part due to the semi- or fully autonomous data collection. Novel technologies also typically avoid killing insects," says Toke Thomas Hoye, Professor of Ecology at the Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Denmark.
The automation of insect identification reduces the reliance on specialized experts, freeing them to focus on more critical tasks. Given that the majority of insect species remain unidentified and unnamed, traditional methods of characterizing these species would require over a millennium.
"Now, computer-based methods and artificial intelligence can massively speed up the task of describing life on Earth. By teaching computers how to separate insects, we can make sense of billions of images, millions of sound recordings, and trillions of DNA sequences," says Tomas Roslin, Professor of Insect Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU).
Dr. Silke Bauer from the Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL) adds, "Together, these technical advances will revolutionize our knowledge about insects. They make surveys of all types of insects feasible. While they have so far been developed in isolation from each other, our special issue is the start of their integration. By combining them, we will gain unprecedented insights into insects across the world." She emphasizes the importance of making both the technologies and the data accessible globally to ensure equity.
These innovations are highlighted in a new issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - a pivotal resource for those interested in insect biodiversity and research methodologies.
Research Report:Towards a toolkit for global insect biodiversity monitoring
Related Links
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