Editorial - Are insects and other invertebrates in decline in Australia?

Abstract

As we reflect on the 19th and 20th centuries as the ages of scientific exploration and discovery, the 21st century will probably go down in history as the age of extinction with the realisation that the sixth mass extinction event, and probably a new geological Epoch – the Anthropocene, is well and truly upon us. During the past two centuries, considerable effort was devoted to the discovery of plant and animal species (Taxonomy Decadal Plan Working Group 2018), from field collection of samples, curation and identification of material to taxonomic description and documentation (Bebber et al. 2007; Bebber et al. 2010), as well as quantifying global species richness by estimating the overall number of species (e.g. Erwin 1982; May 1988; Joppa et al. 2011; Pimm et al. 2014; Stork et al. 2015). However, while we may never know the exact number of species, there is now a concerted effort to catalogue extinctions and quantify the rate and extent of loss of species in the recent past (~200 years), present and future (e.g. Pimm and Raven 2000; Thomas et al. 2004; Dunn 2005; Costello et al. 2013; Pimm et al. 2014; Régnier et al. 2015; Woinarski et al. 2015; Geyle et al. 2018; J. Woinarski et al. unpublished data). Although extinction is a natural process in the evolution of life on Earth, the current global rate of extinction is estimated to be several orders of magnitude higher than the normal background rate (Pimm et al. 2014; Régnier et al. 2015).