Status of Insects is an NSF-funded Research Coordination Network (RCN) focused on developing the empirical and quantitative tools needed to answer one of the largest research challenges in biodiversity science: the insect decline phenomenon.
The network is composed of ecologists, entomologists, conservation biologists, evidence-synthesists and meta-analysts working to grapple with the challenges of data aggregation and synthesis that are needed to address fundamental questions about the magnitude, ubiquity, and causes of insect decline. The RCN also serves as a link between the research community and industry professionals, policymakers, educators, science communicators, journalists, nature enthusiasts, and others, to ensure widespread dissemination of discoveries and informed policy-development.
Our aim is to bring together existing efforts to systematically collate and map the literature relevant to insect population trajectories across the globe, identify knowledge clusters to become foci for meta-analyses, develop new quantitative tools to analyze the resulting data, identify knowledge gaps to prioritize future research, and develop best practices guidelines for future insect monitoring.
The RCN is funded by the National Science Foundation; initial funding to develop the network was provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.