"Many insects go extinct when species they rely on disappear. Most fish, birds, lizards, and other animals have their own specialized mites and lice, so when the host species die, their parasites die with them. Also, plant-eating insects are likely to go extinct when the plants they feed on die. A massive population decline in chestnut trees due to chestnut blight in the 20th century took at least three species of butterfly with it. In ecology you rarely lose one thing. For every species of mammal, bird, plant, insect, and so on, there are at least two species of parasites that specialize on them as hosts. Similarly, losing some species of insects could have surprising effects for people. One 1997 study estimates that a third of world crop production depends on pollination by wild insects. Without these bugs in the ecosystem, an estimated 117 billion dollars (U.S.) worth of crops would fail."
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 22:17:52 +0000
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