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More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, October 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#3 of 222,442)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Citations

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2132 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
4224 Mendeley
citeulike
3 CiteULike
Title
More than 75 percent decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas
Published in
PLOS ONE, October 2017
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
Pubmed ID
Authors

Caspar A. Hallmann, Martin Sorg, Eelke Jongejans, Henk Siepel, Nick Hofland, Heinz Schwan, Werner Stenmans, Andreas Müller, Hubert Sumser, Thomas Hörren, Dave Goulson, Hans de Kroon

Abstract

Global declines in insects have sparked wide interest among scientists, politicians, and the general public. Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services. Our understanding of the extent and underlying causes of this decline is based on the abundance of single species or taxonomic groups only, rather than changes in insect biomass which is more relevant for ecological functioning. Here, we used a standardized protocol to measure total insect biomass using Malaise traps, deployed over 27 years in 63 nature protection areas in Germany (96 unique location-year combinations) to infer on the status and trend of local entomofauna. Our analysis estimates a seasonal decline of 76%, and mid-summer decline of 82% in flying insect biomass over the 27 years of study. We show that this decline is apparent regardless of habitat type, while changes in weather, land use, and habitat characteristics cannot explain this overall decline. This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning in the European landscape.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 4,224 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 4224 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 682 16%
Student > Bachelor 657 16%
Student > Ph. D. Student 614 15%
Researcher 539 13%
Other 174 4%
Other 506 12%
Unknown 1052 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1521 36%
Environmental Science 755 18%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 184 4%
Social Sciences 72 2%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 67 2%
Other 374 9%
Unknown 1251 30%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7459. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 March 2024.
All research outputs
#366
of 25,516,314 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#3
of 222,442 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2
of 336,990 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#1
of 3,656 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,516,314 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 222,442 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 336,990 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 3,656 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.