Because of humans and climate change insects feed on plants like never before and the consequences are unknown

This research suggests that the strength of human influence on plant-insect interactions is not controlled by climate change alone, but by the way humans interact with terrestrial landscapes.

Even as their numbers decline globally , insects today cause unprecedented levels of damage to plants, according to new research led by University of Wyoming scientists.

The first-of-its-kind study compares the damage done to modern-day plants by feeding herbivores with the damage it did to fossilized leaves dating back to the late Cretaceous period, nearly 67 million years ago.

The study , published Oct. 10 in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined fossilized leaves damaged by feeding herbivores from the late Cretaceous period during The Pleistocene Era, just over 2 million years ago, and compared it to papers collected by Lauren Azevedo Schmidt, the study's lead author and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Maine from 3 modern forests.

Different types of damage

Detailed research showed different types of damage caused by insects, and found significant increases in all recent damage compared to what is recorded in the fossil record.

"The difference between modern-day insect damage and the fossil record is striking," Lauren says in a University of Wyoming press release .

"Our results show that plants in the modern era suffer from unprecedented levels of insect damage, despite the low prevalence of insects on a large scale," the researchers wrote in their published study, noting that this large disparity could be explained by human activity.

"We hypothesize that humans influenced fluctuations in insect damage and diversity within modern forests, with the greatest human impact occurring after the Industrial Revolution," the researchers added. "Consistent with this hypothesis, grass samples from the early 2000s were 23 percent more susceptible to damage Insects are from samples collected in the early 20th century, a pattern that has been associated with a warming climate.

The power of human influence

The researchers suspect that climate change does not fully explain the increase in damage caused by insects, and that more research is necessary to determine the exact reasons for the increased damage that insects do to plants.

In contrast, there are many studies that confirm that climate warming, urbanization and the introduction of invasive species; Things that are likely to have a significant impact on the occurrence of such significant damage.

The authors conclude, "This research indicates that the strength of human influence on plant-insect interactions is controlled not only by climate change, but by the way humans interact with terrestrial landscapes."