Insects make up the vast majority of animal species on Earth, but their populations are declining rapidly. The ability to measure their numbers is crucial to understand the efficacy of methods to reverse the trend, but, until now, tracking insect decline at a global scale has been challenging. New technologies could change this.
A new study, published in the journal Conservation Letters, co-authored by Professor Lynn Dicks and Dr Joe Millard, of our Agroecology Group, recommends the United Nations establishes a dedicated working group to develop insect-focused measurements, and outlines practical tools that could create a worldwide picture of insect health.
A global team of scientists found that 23 biodiversity targets agreed by world governments to protect and restore nature by 2030 are well-designed and could, if met, help reverse falling insect numbers.
Dr Andrew Bladon, lead author from the University of Reading, said: "Insects are the foundations of life on Earth, and we are only just beginning to understand how fast we are losing them.
“Technology is opening up possibilities that simply did not exist a decade ago. We can now monitor insects at a scale and speed that was unimaginable to previous generations of scientists. The big question is whether governments are willing to use new technology to hold themselves to account. A plan to save nature that cannot measure whether nature is actually recovering is not good enough."
The study identifies several practical tools that could help:
- Automated camera traps set up in fields and woodlands can photograph every moth and other insect that visits overnight. AI software then works through the images, identifying each species without any human involvement, making it possible to gather far more data than traditional methods allow
- Weather radar, normally used to track rain and wind, can also detect the movement of insects flying in large numbers. Scientists are developing ways to use this data to track how insect populations shift across entire countries and regions over time
- Members of the public can record insects they spot, building up a picture of where species are found and how their numbers are changing. Experts and AI tools check and verify the records, making the data reliable enough to use in scientific assessments
- Existing records of insect populations, gathered over decades by researchers and monitoring schemes around the world, could be pulled together to create a baseline that governments report against when measuring progress on nature recovery
Professor Dicks said: "If you tally up all the species on Earth, most of them are insects. They are critical to the ecosystems we all depend on, and current evidence suggests their populations are falling.
“The global nature plan actually contains all the right ingredients to turn that around. The problem is that the indicators being used to measure success are largely unable to detect any response by insects. We could be doing all the right things and have absolutely no way of knowing whether it is working."
Read more: Bladon, A. J., Akite, P., Chowdhury, S., Riva, F., Cooke, R., Dyer, E. E., Millard, J., Outhwaite, C. L., Rodger, J. G., Hui, C., Isip, J. E., Jones, J. I., Murphy, J. F., Newbold, T., Purvis, A., Roy, H. E., Skinner, G., Woodcock, B. A., ... Isaac, N. J. B., & Dicks, L. V. (2026). Global Biodiversity Framework targets can drive action on insect declines, but lack robust indicators to prove their effectiveness. Conservation Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/con4.70025
Image: A cloud of mayflies.