In Europe, the incidence of insects has decreased dramatically in recent years. At the same time insects represent 80 percent of the species of Central Europe. There are hypotheses about the reasons for the decrease, which do not yet open up clear options for action. The project protectAlps is intended to detect the potential threat to insect diversity in the Bavarian-Austrian Alpine region caused by globally distributed, hardly degradable pollutants. These pollutants are introduced into the Alpine space through the atmosphere. ProtectAlps is to form the basis on the Austrian and Bavarian side in order to link long-term changes in the species composition of insects at alpine observatories with chemical stressors (persistent pollutants and nitrogen inputs in ecosystems). Starting point for the project are unique measurements of air concentrations of persistent pollutants that have been carried out at the Observatory Hoher Sonnblick (AT) and the Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus since 2005. However, these series of measurements can not be related to occurrence and frequency of insects, nor the content of these pollutants and their effect in wild insects is unknown worldwide. Similarly, the relationship between concentrations of atmospheric nitrogen compounds as compulsory fertilizer and alpine plant diversity is currently not structured, although the composition of alpine vegetation has a fundamental impact on the occurrence of insects. For the first time, ProtectAlps should capture these relationships under common standards, develop methods for recurrent capture, and make the results available for long-term comparisons on the Austrian and Bavarian sides in the coming decades.