Science at UM [S04-ep05]: The Decline of Insects
This week on "Science at UM," Laurence Gaume, a researcher at the Amap, talks to us about the decline of insects. The report takes you up to the spectrometry pod of the physical measurements laboratory with Guillaume Cazals. Finally, we wrap up with the44th edition of the Mushroom and Autumn Plants Fair. A program co-produced and broadcast on Radio Divergence 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. It’s 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 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 windshield, which used to be covered in insects—which says a lot about our relationship with these little creatures. Rare are those who speak of the regret for the grasshoppers that 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 stone, or the lemon butterflies, which, it was said, heralded the arrival of spring.
In 2020, however, a study published in the highly prestigious journal *Science* cast doubt on the windshield theory. The good news was that the decline in insect populations wasn’t quite as catastrophic as that. Except that…
Except that 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. The study 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 suite. He explains how the spectrometers work, comparing them to scales, and describes how they enable molecules to be weighed with great precision in order to better characterize them.
Finally, our last-minute guest is Françoise Fons, who’s here to tell us about an event we love at UM: the44th edition of the Fall Mushroom and Plant Fair, which will take place this weekend at the School of Pharmacy.
At UM Science, you’ve got the program—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
Tune in to the show “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9
