2025/06/02 by Mayra C. Vidal, Mariana Abarca, Kristi M. Backe +9 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Insect-Plant Interactions and Control #Plant and animal studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/icad.12845
openalex publication_date 2025/06/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
Abstract Global change is causing major declines in biodiversity, especially of insects. Scientific interest in global change impacts on insects has increased in recent years, resulting in many different meta‐analyses examining questions within this topic. We performed a comprehensive review of meta‐analyses examining the effects of global change stressors on insects to identify well‐studied questions and gaps in our knowledge and synthesise the responses of insects to those stressors. We identified 75 meta‐analyses that fit our scope, accounting for 905 meta‐results and spanning 18 global change stressors. Our synthesis identified several global change stressors that are relatively well‐studied across insect groups, such as agriculture, habitat degradation, and pesticide use. Moreover, other global change stressors were found to be relatively less studied, highlighting areas that need more attention; for example, very few meta‐analyses considered the impacts of global warming, ozone, light pollution, and interactive effects of multiple stressors on insects. Most stressors are more associated with negative than positive effects on insects, except for nutrient addition, ozone, and air pollution. Negative effects accounted for the large majority of consequences on reproductive responses, which may help explain recent insect declines. Additionally, we found evidence for higher trophic levels being more negatively affected by global change and insects in aquatic habitats experiencing fewer negative responses to stressors. Given these largely negative impacts of global change on insects, we argue for the need for national and local policy actions to monitor and actively conserve insect communities.