Sheep herding in small grasslands promotes dung beetle diversity in a mountain forest landscape

Rios-Díaz, Cecilia L.; Moreno, Claudia E.; Ortega-Martínez, Ilse J.; Zuria, Iriana; Escobar, Federico; Castellanos, Ignacio

doi:10.1007/s10841-020-00277-5

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…Several studies found differences in various parameters between forest and pasture assemblages. Ríaz-Díaz et al [51] found significant differences in species composition between forest and grassland habitats. Jugovic et al [52] found significant differences in species composition, species richness, and abundance among grazed and overgrown sites.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Wood Pastures: A Transitional Habitat between Forests and Pastures for Dung Beetle Assemblages

Somay

Szigeti

Boros

et al. 2020

Forests

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Wood pastures are home to a variety of species, including the dung beetle. Dung beetles are an important functional group in decomposition. Specifically, in terms of livestock manure, they not only contribute to nutrient cycling but are key players in supporting human and animal health. Dung beetles, however, are declining in population, and urgent recommendations are needed to reverse this trend. Recommendations need to be based on solid evidence and specific habitats. Herein, we aimed to investigate the role of an intermediate habitat type between forests and pastures. Wood pastures are key areas for dung beetle conservation. For this reason, we compared dung beetle assemblages among forests, wood pastures, and grasslands. We complemented this with studies on the effects of dung type and season at three Hungarian locations. Pitfall traps baited with cattle, sheep, or horse dung were used in forests, wood pastures, and pasture habitats in spring, summer, and autumn. Dung beetle assemblages of wood pastures showed transient characteristics between forests and pastures regarding their abundance, species richness, Shannon diversity, assemblage composition, and indicator species. We identified a strong effect of season and a weak of dung type. Assemblage composition proved to be the most sensitive measure of differences among habitats. The conservation of dung beetles, and the decomposition services they provide, need continuous livestock grazing to provide fresh dung, as well as the maintenance of wood pastures where dung beetle assemblages typical of forests and pastures can both survive.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Dung beetle assemblage composition was different in this study for habitats, seasons, and dung types. It seems that composition is a sensitive measure of differences in dung beetle assemblages across a range of conditions [51,69].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wood Pastures: A Transitional Habitat between Forests and Pastures for Dung Beetle Assemblages

Somay

Szigeti

Boros

et al. 2020

Forests

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“…Studies have shown that the pastures that have been used for cattle grazing in tropics and subtropics are the poor habitats for the dung beetles, habitats that maintain some canopy, such as plantations and orchards, have moderate diversity of the beetles, and the closed forests have the highest diversity of the beetles 11 – 15 . In contrast, some other studies have shown that the open habitat, such as the grasslands used by the browsing wild ungulates in the tropics, have the highest abundance and taxonomic diversity of dung beetles, and the closed forests are the poor habitat for dung beetles 16 – 18 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Spatiotemporal effects on dung beetle activities in island forests-home garden matrix in a tropical village landscape

Asha

Manoj

Megha

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Insects in seasonal tropics experience a wide range of temperatures along seasons, habitats, and a day. Therefore, the thermal tolerance of the insects can be a major driver for their habitat preference, temporal patterns of activity, and formation of communities. We examined the dung beetle communities of eleven pairs of neighboring open (home gardens) and closed habitats (sacred groves) during dry and wet seasons and diel periods (day and night) to understand the dung beetle activities along a spatiotemporal gradient constituted by the sacred groves—home garden matrix on a tropical village landscape. We tested the following hypotheses: (i) closed habitats have greater activities of dung beetles over open habitats; (ii) the diurnal communities of dung beetles are different from the nocturnal communities; and (iii) the diurnal-nocturnal activities of dung beetles could be predicted by the habitat and season. We considered abundance, richness, total biomass, and Shannon diversity of overall beetles, abundance of different functional groups, and species composition in communities as the quantitative measures in the predictive statistical models. In total, 2727 dung beetles belonging to 38 species, ten genera, and three functional groups were collected. The open habitat supported more number of dung beetles (N = 2318) than the closed habitat (N = 409). The diurnal communities were different from nocturnal communities, particularly in open habitat, where the temperature was different between day and night. The dominant species of the diurnal communities of open habitat hardly used the closed habitat in any context including dry–wet seasons, but the nocturnal communities of the open habitat were closer to the communities of closed habitat. The diel period and habitat predicted the abundance activity of functional groups; season was a poor predictor of dung beetle activities. Given that the species composition has turned over across habitats, and the closed habitat supported remarkably lesser number of beetles than the open habitats, the closed habitat is unlikely to be a thermal refuge for the open habitat species in village landscapes that have island forests, such as sacred groves, and home gardens form a matrix.

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“…Although our expectation was that the sacred groves, owing to their possession of forests and closed canopy, have more species and abundance of dung beetles than the home gardens, we witnessed a reverse pattern with the home gardens conserving more species and abundance than the sacred groves, a pattern reported not rarely 23,[59][60][61] . While this pattern was very clear in moderately-and highly-urbanized landscapes, in less-urbanized location, the abundance was similar for both the habitats, and richness was marginally higher in sacred groves.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 60%

Dung beetles prefer used land over natural greenspace in urban landscape

Asha

Manoj

Rajesh

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Urbanization drives land-use and patterns of biodiversity. Yet, very little is known about how biodiversity of structurally different habitats is responded to urbanization. We surveyed coprophagous dung beetles and their ecological functional groups—tunnellers, dwellers, and rollers—in shaded natural semi-evergreen forests of sacred groves and the neighbouring relatively open home gardens of sites that represent three levels of urbanization to address the following questions: (1) Do sacred groves have higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens? (2) Is urbanization a key driver of dung beetle abundance, richness, diversity, and community? (3) Is dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves immune to urbanization? and (4) Which ecological functional groups of dung beetles are affected by urbanization? We hypothesized that the sacred groves have a distinct community, resulting in higher abundance, richness, and diversity of dung beetles than home gardens, and the dung beetle assemblage of sacred groves may be immune to urbanization. We sampled the beetles during wet and dry periods using cow dung as a bait. Against our predictions, dung beetle abundance, richness, and diversity were higher in used lands than sacred groves, particularly in urban landscapes. The two habitats had distinct compositions of dung beetles. Tunnellers and rollers were affected by urbanization, but not dwellers. Heliophilic and synanthropic species characterized by smaller species dominated overall catches in the used lands of urban areas. Results downplay sacred grove as a potential refuge for dung beetles and suggest that the biodiversity of native forests may be affected more by urbanization than the manipulated anthropogenic habitats.

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Sheep herding in small grasslands promotes dung beetle diversity in a mountain forest landscape

Cited by 7 publications

References 69 publications

Wood Pastures: A Transitional Habitat between Forests and Pastures for Dung Beetle Assemblages

Wood Pastures: A Transitional Habitat between Forests and Pastures for Dung Beetle Assemblages

Spatiotemporal effects on dung beetle activities in island forests-home garden matrix in a tropical village landscape

Dung beetles prefer used land over natural greenspace in urban landscape

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