Relationship between land uses and diversity of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeinae) in the southern Atlantic forest of Argentina: which are the key factors?

Abstract

de efecto del disturbio antrópico sobre la diversidad funcional, funciones ecosistémicas, servicios ecosistémicos y riqueza de especies. Las flechas continuas representan efectos directos y las flechas punteadas efectos indirectos. La línea punteada en verde representa el efecto indirecto del disturbio sobre los servicios ecosistémicos a

Dung beetles response to livestock management in three different regional contexts

“…As shown in previous studies, replacement of the native forest by open pastures strongly reduced dung beetle richness and modified species composition in the Atlantic forest 31,35,75 and the humid Chaco 37,76 ; in addition, in both regions silvopastoral systems preserved dung beetle diversity. In contrast, dung beetle assemblages in the dry Chaco showed a completely different response: diversity (both richness and composition) was similar in open pastures, native forests and silvopastoral systems.…”

“…In the two wet regions with a low-intermediate precipitation seasonality (the humid Chaco and the Atlantic forest), dung beetle diversity in open livestock areas strongly differed from the native forest and the silvopastoral system; in contrast, in the region showing the strongest seasonality of precipitation (dry Chaco) differences on dung beetle diversity between livestock systems and native forests were not evident. Most previous studies have focused on the local consequences of cattle grazing [31][32][33]35,41,70,71 or on the importance of regional and local factors determining patterns of dung beetle diversity 30,[72][73][74] . However, this is one of the first field studies that explicitly considers the interaction of both scales through the comparison of the response of dung beetles to cattle raising among different regions.…”

“…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.…”

“…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 .…”

Environmental drivers of species composition and functional diversity of dung beetles along the Atlantic Forest–Pampa transition zone

“…Moreover, Giménez Gómez et al . () state that the conservation of canopy (either native or exotic) determines whether highly diverse dung beetle assemblages and their ecological functions are preserved. Spatial attributes are also important because they can be used as proxies for biotic interactions, dispersal, unmeasured environmental variables and historical events since several ecological processes are spatially structured (Dray et al .…”