Puerto Rico's Insect Population Is Dwindling, Too
A series of research reports from biologists worldwide has shown that the world’s insect population is falling sharply. A new report published in in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences spotlights the same problem in Puerto Rico.
This is not the result of Hurricane Maria. The researchers had visited El Yunque, the tropical rainforest on the Island, in the 1970s, cataloging and counting insects. They recently returned to replicate their earlier work. In category after category, they saw startling drops in the populations: 30 percent, 60 percent, 90 percent.
Checking other research over the same time period, they saw similar results. Scientists measuring population change among insects before Hurricane Maria saw the same pattern.
Insects and other arthropods, from butterflies to spiders, are present in Puerto Rico in much smaller numbers than before.
Read more: https://www.puertoricoreport.com/puerto-ricos-insect-population-is-dwindling-too/#.W9VhztVKjRY