6144 Insect Species Found in 1.18 Acres of Rainforest

A massive study published in the journal Science on 14 December 2012 cataloged the arthropod diversity of a 0.48 hectare area in the San Lorenzo Rainforest in Costa Rica. Researchers collected 6144 species and "extrapolated total species richness to larger areas on the basis of competing models." It was led by Yves Basset of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Universidad de Panamá in Panama City, Panama and the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

"The whole 6000-hectare forest reserve most likely sustains 25,000 arthropod species. Notably, just 1 hectare of rainforest yields >60% of the arthropod biodiversity held in the wider landscape," the study's abstract continues.

"Terry Erwin, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study, cautions against putting too much weight on the estimated number of species," writes Sarah C.P. Williams for WIRED.

"This study is exciting because they’ve taken a large team of people and used every technique available,” Erwin told WIRED; “but to take a little sample from one place and scale up, it’s been critiqued and critiqued and it just doesn’t work."

"Erwin adds that further surveys of the tree diversity across the entire San Lorenzo rainforest could help make better predictions of the total number of arthropod species there," writes Williams.

"For now, the results can help scientists determine additional factors that influence biodiversity and develop models of the impact of habitat loss on arthropod diversity and abundance," Basset tells WIRED.

"With this baseline count, and the calculated ratios between types of organisms, researchers can begin to assess how adding or removing one particular area or type of tree or animal affects this balance and can then begin to set conservation priorities," continues Williams.

“If we want to understand and conserve life on Earth, we had better start understanding and conserving the arthropods of tropical forests," concludes Basset. 

"Insects perform a vast number of important functions in our ecosystem," writes Zora Warren of the Harvard Graduate School in Education. "They aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control insect and plant pests; they also decompose dead materials, thereby reintroducing nutrients into the soil. Burrowing bugs such as ants and beetles dig tunnels that provide channels for water, benefiting plants. Bees play a major role in pollinating fruit trees and flower blossoms. Gardeners love the big-eyed bug and praying mantis because they control the size of certain insect populations, such as aphids and caterpillars, which feed on new plant growth. Finally, all insects fertilize the soil with the nutrients from their droppings."

The greater the degree of biodiversity in an area, the greater the chances for ecological niche emergence to occur. Insects are significant to the ecological health of most ecosystems. In addition to what Warren described, they are also a source of food for many predators, and are part of many complex food chains.

Insects can be found in almost every kind of environment on the planet. Gynaephora groenlandica, or the Arctic Wooly Moth, is a hardy example of insect durability -- they can be found in the Arctic Circle, Northern Canada and Greenland specifically. Besides that less common example, though, most insects prefer warm, moist environments, hence rainforests as a popular target for tracking their diversity and how their diversity impacts the greater ecology of an area.