Movement and population size of two dung beetle species in an Andean agricultural landscape dominated by sun-grown coffee

Abstract

Understanding how species use and persist in agricultural areas is useful for planning conservation efforts at the landscape scale. Information at the population level is scarce, even for organisms, such as dung beetles, that are traditionally used in biodiversity studies to evaluate the effects of anthropic disturbance. Based on multiple mark-recapture events, the description of movement patterns and three population parameters (population size, survival and recruitment) were compared for two dung beetle species (Dichotomius cf. alyattes and Oxysternon conspicillatum) in a fragmented Andean landscape dominated by sun-grown coffee crops. Interspecific differences were detected in movement patterns and in the minimum distance moved across the landscape, with the latter associated with wing loading and species habitat preferences. D. cf. alyattes was captured in both the forest and in sungrown coffee plots, but tended to limit its movement to patches of forest, while O. conspicillatum covered large distances in short periods of time across the sun-grown coffee crops (ca. 1.7 km/24 h). The population of each species increased during the months of greatest precipitation, prior to the recruitment of new beetles. Given their great capacity for movement, habitat preference and their differential use of the landscape, the species studied can be used as models to evaluate the functional connectivity of Andean landscapes under high anthropic demand. Our results support the idea of the differential response of species to land-use changes, an aspect that should be considered for effective biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning in human-dominated landscapes.

Assembly mechanisms of dung beetles in temperate forests and grazing pastures

“…Dispersal capacity varies among dung beetle species. Some of them can move 50 to 100 m in few days 36,37 or even up to 1.5 km, although this depends on their physiological (reproductive) condition or sex 38,39 . In open environments some generalist species show high vagility, while specialist species are less vagile 40 .…”

Efecto de borde en ensamblajes de escarabajos coprófagos (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) en fragmentos de bosque de un paisaje andino

“…Caracterización de los fragmentos de bosque muestreados en el área de influencia de la Central Hidroeléctrica Porce II. Larsen y Forsyth (2005), recomiendan al menos 50 m para evitar interferencia, esta recomendación se hace a partir de los resultados de captura y recaptura de una sola especie Canthon acutus por lo que no parece concluyente para todo el ensamblaje debido a que la dispersión depende entre otros factores de la especie de escarabajo y sus estrategias de forrajeo (Cultid-Medina et al 2015).…”

More than 5 Years! An Unusually Long-Lived Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Andean Agricultural Landscape

“…alyattes was conducted across 28,000 ha of an agricultural landscape between 1300 and 2100 m of elevation, in the western Andes of Colombia. The sampling included a section of the landscape in which markrecapture studies of Scarabaeinae were conducted previously: Cultid-Medina et al (2015) and García-López (2017). In both studies as in the landscape genetics project (2016-2018), we use the same capture method: Nonlethal pitfall traps were baited with a mix of human and pig excrement (7:3 ratio), and each pitfall trap consists of a 0.5-L container with a plastic cone at the entrance to prevent the beetles from escaping (see Cultid et al 2012).…”

“…In both studies as in the landscape genetics project (2016-2018), we use the same capture method: Nonlethal pitfall traps were baited with a mix of human and pig excrement (7:3 ratio), and each pitfall trap consists of a 0.5-L container with a plastic cone at the entrance to prevent the beetles from escaping (see Cultid et al 2012). In Cultid-Medina et al (2015) and García-López (2017), the beetles were marked with a Mototool (DREMERL Stylus 1100 (R) ), assigning a consecutive number in low relief on the elytron or pronotum of each individual (Martínez-Quintero et al 2013). The taxonomic determination of the species captured in the studied landscape was carried out with the keys that include Andean genera and species of dung beetles (e.g., Genier 1996, Vaz de Mello et al 2011 and with the support of Colombian taxonomists (C.A.…”

“…Compared to the number of studies at the community level, knowledge of basic demographic aspects of the dung beetles of the subfamily Scarabaeinae remains limited and fragmented. In this sense, few studies include the estimation of demographic parameters such as population size and sexual proportion (e.g., Arellano et al 2008, Villada-Bedoya et al 2017, still fewer have estimated probabilities of survival and rates of recruitment (e.g., Viljanen 2009, Cultid-Medina et al 2015, and beyond the laboratory, the mortality rates of Scarabaeinae are unknown. To date, it has been proposed that adult Scarabaeinae live between 1.5 and 24 months (Table 1), but for more than 50 years, it has been suspected that some species may live for up to 3 years (Balthasar 1963, cited in Halffter & Mathews 1966.…”