By Jen Bayer
Bugs!? They sting and bite! They eat our food, our forests, and even our sweaters! At one time or another, almost all of us just want them to go away.
As it turns out, they are going away. Worldwide insect populations have declined by nearly half over the past forty years. Here in the Eastern Sierra, many of us see the evidence of this on our windshields.
But wait, once insects are gone what will pollinate our apples and apricots, our Sierra asters, monkeyflowers, and shooting stars? What will break down deadwood, fallen leaves, and animal waste? What will trout and songbirds eat? Edward Wilson, an ecologist who devoted a lifetime to studying these questions, has warned, “If all mankind were to disappear the world would regenerate back into the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish the world would collapse into chaos.”
Insects are 80% of all known species of animals and represent about half of all animal biomass on earth. Insects are foundational to the ecosystem, though only one million of an estimated five million species have been identified.
My twin sister Hilary and I founded Silicon Valley Barcode of Life to address biodiversity loss. We were raised in the Silicon Valley surrounded by technology and science, and always appreciating nature.
Over time, we learned that a mass extinction, only the seventh in the multi-billion-year history of life on Earth, was underway and that recovery of the diversity of life lost in prior events of this kind has taken tens of millions of years. We wanted to do something. Inspired — by eminent conservation biologists Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, we realized we had an opportunity to use technology for biodiversity, and founded SVBOL. Hilary is currently overseeing the Silicon Valley portion of the project, and I’m living here in the Mono Basin full time.
We’re DNA barcoding arthropods to create a comprehensive catalogue of Mono Basin and Silicon Valley arthropod biodiversity, and to engage volunteers in learning about the importance of it. DNA barcodes can be thought of like fingerprints for each species, and are a more efficient way than morphological taxonomy to identify previously unknown species.
We’re using Malaise traps (tent-like tools for bulk collection of flying insects), aerial and aquatic nets, light traps (for nighttime collecting), and Berlese funnels (devices to extract ground dwelling insects from soil and litter) to sample diverse ecosystems in each of the ecoregions in our locales recognized by the United States Geological Survey.
In the six years since our founding we’ve collected more than 70,000 samples, and contributed 1,000+ unique records to the BOLD Systems database, a globally accessible open access catalog of multicellular life. We’ve also directly reached one thousand people through in-person presentations and many more through our website. If you’re interested in learning more about SVBOL or participating in this work, please let us know! We’re looking for landowners, macro photographers, naturalists, educational group directors, and more. You can reach us at svbarcodeoflife@gmail.com.