研究人员报道了物种间的相互作用如何超越生态系统，影响农业和人类健康。研究人员发现农民通过增加杀虫剂的使用量31.1%来弥补蝙蝠数量的减少。农民增加杀虫剂使用的不良后果影响了健康——在蝙蝠大规模死亡的县，婴儿死亡率上升了7.9%。
这些发现为此前关于生态系统破坏带来显著社会成本的理论预测提供了实证验证。
据介绍，生物多样性的丧失正在加速，但人们对这些生态系统破坏如何影响人类福祉知之甚少。生态学家已经记录了蝙蝠作为昆虫天然捕食者的重要性，以及野生动物疾病的爆发导致其数量下降，进而可能导致生物害虫防治能力的下降。
附：英文原文
Title: The economic impacts of ecosystem disruptions: Costs from substituting biological pest control
Author: Eyal G. Frank
Issue&Volume: 2024-09-06
Abstract: Biodiversity loss is accelerating, yet we know little about how these ecosystem disruptions affect human well-being. Ecologists have documented both the importance of bats as natural predators of insects as well as their population declines after the emergence of a wildlife disease, resulting in a potential decline in biological pest control. In this work, I study how species interactions can extend beyond an ecosystem and affect agriculture and human health. I find that farmers compensated for bat decline by increasing their insecticide use by 31.1%. The compensatory increase in insecticide use by farmers adversely affected health—human infant mortality increased by 7.9% in the counties that experienced bat die-offs. These findings provide empirical validation to previous theoretical predictions about how ecosystem disruptions can have meaningful social costs.
DOI: adg0344
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg0344