Livestock areas with canopy cover sustain dung beetle diversity in the humid subtropical Chaco forest

Alonso, Celeste Beatriz Guerra; Zurita, Gustavo A.; Bellocq, M. Isabel

doi:10.1111/icad.12340

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…(2020) 10:391 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57278-x www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Besides their biological restrictions, landscape elements also have differential impacts on the dispersal capacity of species. For example, open areas may act as barriers for the dispersion of some forest specialist species 28,38,[42][43][44] , because temperature and moisture conditions change 45 . However, some forest patches and other landscape elements such as live fences and isolated trees promote spatial heterogeneity and can increase functional connectivity, reducing the effects of isolation 38,46 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly mechanisms of dung beetles in temperate forests and grazing pastures

Ortega-Martínez

Moreno

Rios-Díaz

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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the role of deterministic and stochastic mechanisms in community assembly is a key question in ecology, but little is known about their relative contribution in dung beetle assemblages. Moreover, in human modified landscapes these mechanisms are crucial to understand how biodiversity can be maintained in productive agroecosystems. We explored the assembly mechanisms driving dung beetle assemblages in forests and grazed grassland patches, and assessed the role of dung availability, soil hardness and moisture, elevation and land use heterogeneity as environmental predictors of functional diversity. to determine the underlying assembly mechanisms, we estimated functional diversity metrics (functional richness, evenness and divergence) and their departure from the predicted values by null models. We also used GLMs to assess the influence of environmental variables on functional diversity. in most cases, stochastic processes prevailed in structuring dung beetle assemblages and, consequently, environmental variables were not good predictors of dung beetle functional diversity. However, limiting similarity was found as a secondary mechanism with an effect on dung beetle assemblages in grasslands. Our results highlight the importance of stochastic processes that may reflect a metacommunity dynamic. therefore, restoring landscape connectivity might be more important than habitat quality for the conservation of these functionally diverse beetle assemblages. Community assembly theory provides a conceptual foundation about the mechanisms that determine species composition of local assemblages 1,2 , and this background becomes especially relevant for studies concerning the ecological consequences of environmental contemporary changes. For example, results from a recent study have made it possible to improve our understanding of biological invasions, a global issue that is critical in ecology and conservation 3. However, an important remaining issue is to unravel how current anthropogenic changes to the environment, such as land use change and agricultural production can modify the assembly mechanisms that shape the structure and composition of local communities 4. Human activities have contributed substantially to the loss of species and degradation of ecosystems 5,6 , generating impacts on ecological communities 7. Therefore, identifying the drivers of community assembly in human modified landscapes is an urgent challenge. Both deterministic and stochastic mechanisms are important in assembling biological communities. The main deterministic mechanisms driving community assembly are limiting similarity and environmental filtering 8-10. If the local community is formed by non-redundant species, its trait diversity will be high (trait overdispersion) as a result of strong ecological interactions, and community assembly is considered to be driven by a limiting similarity mechanism due to competition 8. On the contrary, the environmental filtering mechanism (the abiotic filter) structures local communities through environmental r...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assembly mechanisms of dung beetles in temperate forests and grazing pastures

Ortega-Martínez

Moreno

Rios-Díaz

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Environmental dissimilarity among native environments and land uses has been already identified as one of the main predictors of changes on biological communities at both local and regional scales 23,24 . In particular, previous studies with dung beetles have shown that land uses preserving microclimatic conditions at the ground level, understory vegetation and soil structure maintain a greater number of native species than those that drastically change them 34,35,37,41,71 . In both the humid Chaco and the Atlantic forest, open pastures contrast greatly with the native forest in vegetation structure and microclimatic conditions, whereas in the dry Chaco environmental conditions between the native environment and open cattle pastures were more similar.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies have shown a reduction in both the taxonomic and functional diversity of dung beetles associated to the replacement of native forests by open pastures for cattle grazing [30][31][32] . In contrast, a series of recent studies showed that cattle areas preserving the forest canopy (particularly of native trees) totally or partially preserve the native diversity of dung beetles in forest ecosystems [33][34][35][36][37] . Livestock systems preserving the canopy also maintain microclimatic conditions and part of the native forest vegetation structure 36,37 .…”

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confidence: 89%

“…In contrast, a series of recent studies showed that cattle areas preserving the forest canopy (particularly of native trees) totally or partially preserve the native diversity of dung beetles in forest ecosystems [33][34][35][36][37] . Livestock systems preserving the canopy also maintain microclimatic conditions and part of the native forest vegetation structure 36,37 . Canopy cover has an indirect influence on dung beetles through the maintenance of soil and understory microclimatic conditions (temperature and humidity) 38 .…”

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Dung beetles response to livestock management in three different regional contexts

Alonso

Zurita

Bellocq

2020

Sci Rep

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the response of biological communities to human disturbances depends on factors acting at local and regional scale and on the interaction between them. We compared the response of native forest dung beetle communities to cattle grazing under regional contexts differing on precipitation patterns (Atlantic forest and humid and dry chaco). through multivariate and GLMM analyses we contrasted richness and composition across regions and land uses and explored the role of local and regional variables accounting for those changes. We captured a total of 44101 individuals of 109 species. The interaction between local and regional variables influenced the response to livestock management. in the two wet regions (humid chaco and Atlantic forest) diversity was similar in the native forest regardless of cattle presence but differs strongly in open pastures. In contrast, in the dry Chaco, differences between native forest and land use were not evident. Vegetation structure was a major determinant of species richness, whereas regional climate determined differences in species composition. We concluded that the response of dung beetles to livestock management cannot be generalized for all biomes. in dry ecosystems, dung beetles are probably pre-adapted to environmental conditions imposed by cattle ranching whereas in wet ecosystems the impact of cattle ranching is more significant.

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“…Most of the dung beetle studies in forest ecosystems were conducted in humid forests e. g. (Gómez-Cifuentes et al, 2017;da da Silva & Cassenote, 2019;Guerra Alonso et al, 2019). However, little is known about their response in dry forests (Barragán et al, 2014;Guerra Alonso et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of dung beetle taxonomic and functional diversity to livestock grazing in an arid ecosystem

Alonso

Zurita

Bellocq

2020

Ecological Entomology

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1. The consequences of cattle raising on biodiversity have been extensively explored in the humid forests; however, its impact in dry forests is less understood. The Dry Chaco is the largest dry forest in South America and deforestation rates in this region are one of the highest in the world. Dung beetles play a key role in cattle dung burial, leading to improved soil quality and reducing parasite incidence. Consequently, sustainable management of cattle should preserve this taxon and associated ecosystem services.2. We compared the taxonomic and functional response of dung beetles to two different livestock managements with different conservation of tree cover (open pastures and silvopastoral systems) in the Dry Chaco.3. Through GLMM analysis, we compared richness, species abundance, taxonomic and functional composition, and three indices of functional diversity between native forest and cattle systems and explored the role of environmental variables to explain changes.4. We captured 2838 individuals of 45 species. Taxonomic and functional richness and functional composition were similar among habitats. Total abundance was greater in the native forest than in silvopastoral systems and pastures. However, functional evenness and dispersion were greater in pastures than in the native forest.5. Previous studies in humid forests showed the strong impact of cattle raising on dung beetle communities; however, the results of this study suggest that in dry forests ranching could have a low impact on native dung beetle diversity; however, reduced population abundance could result in impoverishment of dung beetle communities over time.

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Livestock areas with canopy cover sustain dung beetle diversity in the humid subtropical Chaco forest

Cited by 13 publications

References 79 publications

Assembly mechanisms of dung beetles in temperate forests and grazing pastures

Assembly mechanisms of dung beetles in temperate forests and grazing pastures

Dung beetles response to livestock management in three different regional contexts

Response of dung beetle taxonomic and functional diversity to livestock grazing in an arid ecosystem

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