The vital tasks carried out by tiny "engineers" like earthworms that recycle waste and bees that pollinate crops are under threat because one fifth of the world's spineless creatures may be at risk of extinction, a study reported on Friday.
The rising human population is putting ever more pressure on the "spineless creatures that rule the world" including slugs, spiders, jellyfish, lobsters, corals and bugs such as beetles and butterflies, it said.
"One in five invertebrates look to be threatened with extinction," said Ben Collen at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) of an 87-page report produced with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The report said that invertebrates, creatures that have no internal skeleton, faced loss of habitat, pollution, over-exploitation and climate change.
The "services" they provide - helping humans, whose growing numbers threaten their survival - include water purification, pollination, waste recycling, and keeping soils productive. The value of insect pollination of crops, for instance, has been valued at 153 billion euros ($191 billion Cdn) a year, it said.
A 1997 study put the global economic value of soil biodiversity thanks to often-scorned creatures such as worms, wood lice and beetles at $1.5 trillion a year. The study said the level of threat was similar to that facing vertebrates, including mammals such as whales, reptiles and birds. A 2010 IUCN study found that one fifth of vertebrates were at risk.
