UM atUM [S04-ep05]: The Decline of Insects
This week on *AUM science*, Laurence Gaume, a researcher at the Amap, talks to us about the decline of insects. The report takes you to the spectrometry pod at the Physical Measurements Laboratory with Guillaume Cazals. Finally, we wrap up with the44th edition of the Mushroom and Fall Plants Fair. A program co-produced and broadcast on Divergence Radio every Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Last week, the WWF released its latest Living Planet Report 2024. The findings are stark: 73% of wild vertebrate populations have disappeared over the past 50 years. This is a collapse. At this rate, leatherback turtles, forest elephants, and orangutans will not survive to see the end of this century. Two or three years ago, on this very same program, Vincent Devictor and I reported that bird populations had fallen by an average of 25% over the past 40 years. That, too, is a collapse.
Today we’re going to talk about insects. Try this: ask the people around you if they think insect populations are declining. One in two people will tell you about their car’s windshield, which used to be covered in insects—which really says a lot about our relationship with these little creatures. Rare are those who express nostalgia for the grasshoppers that would burst into showers of sparks with every step through the tall grass, or the ladybugs whose spots we used to enjoy counting, the woodlice that swarmed under every overturned rock, or the lemon butterflies—which, as they say, heralded the arrival of spring.
In 2020, however, a study published in the highly prestigious journal *Science* had cast doubt on the “windshield theory.” The good news was that the collapse of insect populations wasn’t quite as catastrophic as that. Except that…
However, the InsectChange database on which this study was based contains more than 500 errors that call these optimistic results into question. Identifying these 500 errors was a painstaking task carried out by Laurence Gaume, a researcher at the Amap laboratory, in collaboration with Marion Desquilbet. A study on this topic was published in Peer Community Journal on October 8, 2024.
In the second half of the program, the segment takes place in the physics measurement laboratory, where Guillaume Cazals takes us to the mass spectrometry platform. He describes how the spectrometers work, comparing them to scales; these instruments allow molecules to be weighed with great precision in order to better characterize them.
Finally, our last-minute guest is Françoise Fons. She’ll be talking to us about an event we love here atUM: the44th edition of the Fall Mushroom and Plant Fair, which will be held this weekend at the School of Pharmacy.
AtUM , you’ve got the schedule—let’s get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Director: Bruno Bertrand
