Insects of the North

Insects bring tremendous benefits to humankind but accurate information on the status and trends of insect populations is largely lacking, especially in the northern parts of the Nordic countries. The aim of this project is to develop a harmonized and efficient monitoring scheme adapted for the programme area, with particular emphasis given to blood feeding insects and cloudberry pollinators.

Rahoittajat

Scenery from Gistuskaidi, Utsjoki
Scenery from the top of Gistuskaidi fell, Utsjoki, Finland

Projektin tiedot

Projektin kesto

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Rahoittaja

Euroopan rakenne- ja investointirahastot - INTERREG

Projektin rahoittaja

Regional Council of Lapland

Rahoituksen määrä

1 414 135 EUR

Projektin koordinaattori

Länsstyrelsen i Norrbottens län

Yksikkö ja tiedekunta

Ekologia ja genetiikka
Luonnontieteellinen tiedekunta
Historia-, kulttuuri- ja viestintätieteet
Humanistinen tiedekunta

Yhteystiedot

Projektin vetäjä

Muut henkilöt

Projektin kuvaus

Insects are abundant, superdiverse and ubiquitously present across all terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in the North. Their ecological role as pollinators, herbivores, fungivores, predators, parasites, decomposers, etc. is enormous. They provide a major food source for numerous species of other insects, spiders, fishes, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds. It is not exaggeration to state that humankind is entirely dependent on ecological services insects are maintaining in countless different ways. Insect respond to the environmental changes rapidly, making them excellent indicators of environmental change. Despite their utmost importance, insect biodiversity is poorly understood and presently monitored only for a small fraction of their vast diversity.

In this project, we focus on northern insect diversity and particularly their more efficient monitoring. The main activities include:

  1. Development of a broad and standardized insect monitoring scheme based on Malaise traps, which are efficient particularly for flying insects. Monitoring will focus on the most important habitats found in the North, including tundra, boreal forest wetlands. The analyses will be based on metabarcoding approaches and will take a benefit of the unusually comprehensive DNA barcode reference libraries available for the insects of the region.
  2. Develop an efficient and reliable monitoring system for blood-feeding insects. DNA barcode reference libraries will be complemented and monitoring will be based on high-throughput DNA sequencing approaches, including metabarcoding. Interviews with local community members to obtain traditional knowledge of blood-feeding insects and their correlation with environmental parameters will be conducted. Furthermore, we aim to develop a mathematical model explaining and forecasting population dynamics of blood-feeding insects, particularly mosquitos.
  3. Investigating what insects species contribute to cloudberry pollination and developing a DNA-based monitoring system for cloudberry pollinators.

The communication and dissemination of activities and results will increase the interest and awareness of insects in the Interreg Aurora programme area both among stakeholders and the general public.