[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7379\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EQ\u0026amp;A: Climate monitoring, pandemic insight, decomposition \u2013 what insects do for us\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Solodovnikov tells us how exploring bug biodiversity through systematic entomology \u2013 the evolutionary classification of insects \u2013 is critical for humans to have a less biased view of what he calls our \u2018\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/horizon-magazine.eu\/article\/earth-planet-insects-must-be-protected-prof-alexey-solodovnikov.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Eplanet of insects\u003C\/a\u003E\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA study last year showed a \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2020\/apr\/23\/insect-numbers-down-25-since-1990-global-study-finds\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E25% drop in insect numbers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E, others have suggested insects could \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2019\/feb\/10\/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Edisappear within a century\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E. Are you concerned? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGenerally, I\u0027m more worried about people than insects because I think insects will survive. But people are destroying our ecosystems. So this is more problematic for us.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe studies about insect decline and the PR part of that, generally, is good because it attracts attention to insects, it alarms about nature protection.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut when experts look in more detail at how this was measured, that may not be a long-term decline. It might be a more local decline. It\u2019s more complex. We cannot simplify the pattern (and) say, \u2018Now the trend is in 100 years all insects disappear\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat concerns you the most?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe barely have a part of the planet which is intact. Many species, even though they are not getting extinct entirely, they decline or disappear from certain local ecosystems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe major driving force for insect species extinction is habitat destruction. So big deforestation, big landscape alterations may basically ruin the entire range of certain species. If the mountain range somewhere in the tropical forest gets deforested, this could be a home for a few locally endemic species (so) all these species will disappear.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMammals or birds, when they go extinct, that is better noticed. But bigger animals often have bigger distribution ranges. Insects have very small micro habitats \u2013 (it can be) tens of square kilometres and that\u0027s it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy does loss of insects matter?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost insects, when they are not flying around, are hidden in cryptic habitats like soil surface, leaf litter, and forest canopies. So we don\u0027t see them. But because there are so many species and there are such big numbers, they are extremely important in the biosphere because they participate in the food chains, they decompose organic matter (as many dung beetles do),\u0026nbsp;they pollinate plants, to mention just a few.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignleft@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022Insects such as rove beetles can reveal a lot about climate change and help us fight future disease outbreaks. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u0022 height=\u00221338\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/genus_-_credit_aslak_kappel_hansen.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022Insects such as rove beetles can reveal a lot about climate change and help us fight future disease outbreaks. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u0022 width=\u00222006\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EInsects such as rove beetles can reveal a lot about climate change and help us fight future disease outbreaks. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAs a systematic entomologist, what do you do?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe are the first biologists to meet an unknown diversity of insects and we taxonomically describe species and classify them into some systematic order that allows other scientists to navigate this diversity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E(We study) phylogeny \u2013 or the evolutionary tree \u2013 because a good modern biological classification should be based on the tree of life, then it informs us about many things.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhy is this important?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFirst of all, it\u0027s part of basic science. And if we know more about bigger animals or mammals like us (than we know about insects), then we have a biased view of nature or a biased view of the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u0027s why we need to shift our bias to something less notable for us but more notable for nature itself and balance the scientific view of the world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo give you a very simple example, if we have a new (vector-borne) disease or a new vector for a disease, we run to systematic entomology. We run to the library and try to find a book about this group of insects and try to identify the species that caused the problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut this book about mosquitoes (for example) was written not because we have a vector-borne disease, but because somebody was interested in mosquito diversity and studied them for the sake of general knowledge.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESo it could be very helpful in a future pandemic.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EExactly. Imagine a future disease that is transmitted by insects, some new species that we didn\u0027t know yet as a transmitter. Then we need basic knowledge to quickly identify the species and find a solution, because if we spend time to explore the group, to explore diversity and biology, it would cost us extra years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEntomologists have described more than \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.royensoc.co.uk\/facts-and-figures\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E1 million insect species\u003C\/a\u003E and there could be as many as 10 million. Why haven\u2019t we classified more?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere are many factors. And one of them is there are so many insects. It\u0027s a huge task.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe need a lot more resources. There are not enough resources or enough societal interest yet towards systematic entomology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn the other hand, there could be better approaches. If we use more genomic technologies, digitalisation approaches for collections, we could speed this up. But current experiments also show that these advanced technological approaches also require resources and time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018You can trace the evolution of the continental drift, the evolution of the climate, by tracing the evolution of rove beetles.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Alexey Solodovnikov, University of Copenhagen, Denmark \u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou helped train new researchers in this area through the \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/642241\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBIG4\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E project, which ended in 2018. How will that help?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere are so many insects and they are so important, especially these big four groups (beetles; bees, ants and wasps; flies and mosquitoes; butterflies and moths). And we have so few experts. The main goal was to train a cohort of early stage researchers that would be experts in modern approaches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe had a network of projects. We improved phylogenetic knowledge for several groups. There was one study that used machine learning, computer vision, for species identification. Another project developed protocols for how to extract ancient DNA (from museum specimens) and use it in an effective way. Genomics has a lot of power in our research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou focus on rove beetles, of which there are some \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/archive.fieldmuseum.org\/peet_staph\/whatisstaph.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E47,000 described species\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E and are one of the largest families of living organisms. Why, personally, are you interested in them? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey are not the most beautiful or the most spectacular kind of beetles. It\u0027s not an \u2018Oh wow!\u2019 effect or something.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI really love the challenges that they give me as a scientist - unresolved questions and a lot of exciting puzzles or interesting patterns that I discover studying them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignleft@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022There are 47,000 described species of rove beetle and they\u0027re found in many different habitats. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u0022 height=\u00221135\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/IMCEUpload\/he_first_is_the_genus_quedionuchus_pls_credit_student.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022There are 47,000 described species of rove beetle and they\u0027re found in many different habitats. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u0022 width=\u00221703\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EThere are 47,000 described species of rove beetle and they\u0027re found in many different habitats. Image credit - Aslak Kappel Hansen\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat key questions are you trying to answer through rove beetles?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWell, first of all, they are very ancient \u2013 one of the oldest lineages of beetles. We know that from the fossil records from hundreds of millions years ago. Many (insect) groups went extinct along the way. But rove beetles, due to their perfect adaptations, survived. And they\u0027re still a pretty dominant, evolutionary successful group. So what makes them so successful?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEvolutionary lineage originates somewhere and then it evolves and expands. Because there are so many species, they\u2019re in so many habitats. They are in every patch of ground that we could grab. If extra-terrestrials come to Earth on their spaceship, land and have one hour to sample whatever they see on Earth, there is a very high chance that they grab a couple of rove beetles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EYou can trace the evolution of the continental drift, the evolution of the climate, by tracing the evolution of rove beetles. Many rove beetles are preserved in Baltic amber and are good proxies for reconstructing past climates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe rove beetles have amazing biologies. Amblyopinini from South America evolved mutualistic relationships with (small- and medium-sized placental) mammals. They hunt the parasites in mammals\u2019 skin and mammals evolved tolerance toward them. They are not grooming them out. It\u2019s a very rare phenomenon. Usually they (the relationships) are antagonistic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECould you tell us more about rove beetles as past climate proxies?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EReconstructing past climates generally \u2013 it\u0027s a big scientific problem.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDifferent species of beetles are specific to certain temperatures and moisture (in habitats such as the steppe, deserts, tropical or temperate forests). So you can reconstruct the environment based on the species composition, because every species has certain requirements for temperature, humidity, duration of different seasons.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn the same way as we do for modern fauna, we could reconstruct the conditions of the past. For instance, Baltic amber is formed in Europe. In it, we find species that are tropical or subtropical. These species do not occur in Europe. The climate has changed significantly. So we find in Baltic amber from the Eocene (56 million to 33.9 million years ago), species composition that is analogous now to the subtropics and tropics of southeastern Asia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECan studying these beetles also help address climate change today? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s probably more difficult. What we can do by studying rove beetles and other insects is monitor change. We can detect change at the fine scale because rove beetles and insects react quickly to changing conditions \u2013 a certain species would diminish in number or retreat from a certain territory.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf we have this good monitoring system, on a longer term comparing that data to climatic data, we could infer, \u2018Ok, if we notice some change in insects, that will mean certain change in the climate.\u2019 So we can project these trends and kind of see what is ahead of us.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EIs monitoring something that you are working on?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENot currently. We (entomologists at the University of Copenhagen) are moving towards that. That\u0027s what we are actually trying to implement here in Denmark. Right now we are talking with the Aage V Jensen foundation to launch a long-term monitoring program.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow can systematic entomology help us protect insect biodiversity?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt provides the basic knowledge framework. It doesn\u0027t give us immediate solutions for protecting some species, but it makes the search for such solutions possible.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the EU. 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