Waste-eating bugs are disappearing in the Arctic as temperatures rise

Scientists continue to link new environmental changes to rising global temperatures.

In the Arctic, waste-eating bugs are on the decline, and experts are pointing to milder seasons and fewer winter freeze-thaw events.

While these arthropods that consume living waste have shrunk in numbers, other plant-eating insects have increased in population.

A recent study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal used data collected from 1996-2014, the most comprehensive so far in regard to arthropods in the Arctic.

According to the study, temperatures in the Arctic have increased almost twice as fast as the average global temperature increase over the past century.

Athropods are one of the most resilient species on the planet, having adapted to land, sea and air. They make up 75 percent of the world's living and fossil organisms, according to UC Berkeley.

However, detritivores, the kind of insect that eats the world's living garbage, are dropping in numbers.

“We often don’t pay much attention to these small animals, but there could be real consequences to their changing abundances,” said Amanda Koltz, a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.

As the number of detritivores falls, the study claims that decomposition could slow down across the tundra, slowing down the release of carbon from permafrost soils.

The rise in plant-eating bugs (Hemiptera) could also put pressure on Arctic plants, the study said.

The study also suggested that as the increase in herbivore bugs could reduce the amount of carbon retained in the Arctic ecosystem, even if carbon levels continue to expand.

Researchers used data from Greenland to highlight the change. While 20 years of data may not seem like enough when comparing mammal research, it is a significant amount of time for insects.

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