Insect Communities
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Short Essay On How Insect Communities Change with Urbanization?

Urbanization can be best explained as the increase in the proportion of the people who live in towns and cities. The main reason behind urbanization is the trend of people moving from rural areas or countryside to towns and cities has seen a rise in urbanization. This usually takes place when a country is still developing and people move from rural areas to urban to seek better jobs and life prospects. Another reason for urbanization is the natural population increase, which leads to migration. Urbanization affects all types of settlements, from small villages to towns and cities, as the number of people continues to increase. With this growth, the cities began to expand, and they have more people pouring in from other parts too to be a part of the development taking place here.

It is important to note that this growth and urbanization does not only affect the human race; it also has a noticeable effect on the insect communities. Experts of essay writing services UK have told that urbanization is, without any doubt, the greatest anthropogenic, (relating to the study of the origins and development of human beings) transformation that ecological systems are experiencing. While most studies of urban ecology focus on changes to the diversity and abundance of species inhabiting towns and cities, the study on effects of urbanization on the insect and other interacting species has come to light recently.

How Urbanization Affects The Insect Communities:

Urbanization can alter the composition and experiences of the arthropod, better known as communities in a variety of ways, and this phenomenon has been tried and tested in various ways in the past few decades.  It has been observed that rapid worldwide urbanization during the past few decades has led to more than half of the world’s population moving towards the urban regions, and this has made the researchers and scientists observe how this move has affected the insect communities. The experts have been studying insect diversity and followed insect abundance, distribution, extinction, food habits, as well as ecosystem services to fully understand how human movements are closely linked to insect communities.

After years of research, it was discovered that native insect populations have declined to a large extent in urban areas. The study of the spatial distribution of insect communities has revealed that abundance decreases along with the rural-city center gradient, and this has even caused many native insects to go extinct due to the fast-paced urbanization process. A large number of specialist insect communicates seem to have faced severe degeneration but surprising an increase in some generalist species such as aphids, cockroaches, and termites were observed. The main reason for this increase is that these generalist species live among humans, and they live in corners and dark places that do not affect their growth to a large extent.

Urbanization Factors That Play A Key Role In Changing Insect Communities:

The insect communities that have been affected most by urbanization are herbivorous, parasitic, saprophagous, and flower-visiting insects, even more than the predator insects, and they have a severe effect on the ecosystem services of the insects. When we talk about the effects of urbanization on insect communities and the change they go through, we must not forget that environmental pollution, including air pollution, water, as well as, light and heat pollution plays a significant role in affecting the lives and habits of insects. Along with this, habitat fragmentation, road hardening, clustering of buildings, and occurrence of invasive species can also be a major factor in bringing a change to the lives and patterns of insect communities.

As the urbanization process continues and even more people head towards the cities, even further changes in the insect community are expected, and researchers demand measures to protect the insect species in these areas. It is necessary because the presence and role of these insect communities is a very crucial one for human existence and must be fully comprehended by the general public too. It is only with an improved and advanced scientific search on the problems, construction of suitable habitats, and guiding the general public on protecting the environment that the rapidly declining insect communities could be saved from extinction.

When we talk about the changes taking place and their effects on the insects, we need to understand the urban areas differ from the rural ones in terms of climatic and edaphic conditions, surface area as well as connectivity of the habitats, composition, and structure of vegetation, pollution, and human activity. Along with these, fragmentation and air pollution, increase in temperatures, and air and water quality also influence how these insects develop and live. Being living things, they also react to physiological and behavioral changes as everything matters, when it comes to their reproduction and survival.

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