Subtle Land‐Use Change and Tropical Biodiversity: Dung Beetle Communities in Cerrado Grasslands and Exotic Pastures

Abstract

Although many tropical savannas are highly influenced by humans, the patterns of biodiversity loss in these systems remain poorly understood. In particular, the biodiversity consequences of replacing native grasslands with exotic pastures have not been studied. Here we examine how the conversion of the native savanna grasslands affects dung beetle communities. Our study was conducted in 14 native (grassland: campo limpo), and 21 exotic (Urochloa spp. monoculture) pastures in Carrancas, Minas Gerais, Brazil. We collected 4996 dung beetle individuals from 66 species: 3139 individuals from 50 species in native pastures and 1857 individuals from 55 species in the exotic pastures. Exotic pastures had lower dung beetle richness, abundance and biomass than native pastures. Species composition between the two pasture types was significantly different and exotic pastures were dominated by few abundant species. Indicator species analysis detected 16 species indicators of native pastures and three of exotic pastures, according to relative abundance and frequency in each pasture system. Our results show that the conversion of native pastures to exotic pastures leads to a predictable loss of local species richness, increasing dominance and changes in species composition. These results highlight the importance of maintaining native pastures in the Cerrado agro-pastoral landscape.Abstract in Portuguese is available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/btp.

First report on dung beetles in intra-Amazonian savannahs in Roraima, Brazil

“…forests and Amazonian secondary forests, savannahs and agricultural areas , Louzada et al 2010, Matavelli & Louzada 2008. The number of dung beetle species and individuals reported here was lower than in other intra-Amazonian savannahs (Louzada et al 2010, Matavelli & Louzada 2008, southern cerrado (Abot et al 2012, Almeida et al 2011, Durães et al 2005, Gries et al 2012, Vieira & Silva 2012 and native grasslands of the 'Pampa' region . We believe this lower species-rich sample can be due the historical isolation of the intra-Amazonian from the cerrado savannahs in central Brazil during the Pleistocene period (Sanaiotti et al 2002), besides some natural specific habitat characteristics, such as edaphic factors, vegetation structure and fire occurrence (Barbosa & Fearnside 2005, Louzada et al 2010).…”

“…Most species we found belong to species-clusters that have been collected within dry, open and highly disturbed environments on the American continent, some of them with records from Argentina (Damborsky et al 2015), Mexico (Novelo et al 2007), Ecuador (Carpio et al 2009), Venezuela (Lozano 2010), Colombia (Noriega et al 2007) and Costa Rica (Padilla-Gil & , coastal low land forests ('Tabuleiro' forests) (Endres et al 2007) and native and exotic pasturelands (Almeida et al 2011, Costa et al 2009. In addition, the species reported here were also found within highly impacted Brazilian forests, such as northeastern fragments of Atlantic forest (Salomã o & Iannuzzi 2015, Viegas et al 2014, planted Eucalyptus sp.…”

“…The dung beetles are a responsive taxonomic group (Bicknell et al 2014), with more than 600 species recorded in Brazil (Vaz-de-Mello 2000) and distributed throughout all Brazilian terrestrial ecosystems. Regarding their diversity within Brazilian opened areas, studies have recorded between 13 and 66 species from the Brazilian southeastern savannahs (known as 'cerrado') and pasturelands (Abot et al 2012, Almeida et al 2011, Durães et al 2005, Gries et al 2012, Milhomem et al 2003, Vieira & Silva 2012. Furthermore, 15 dung beetle species were reported from the intra-Amazonian savannahs near to Alter do Chão village, state of Pará, Brazil (Louzada et al 2010, Matavelli & Louzada 2008.…”

Environmental influence on coprophagous Scarabaeidae (Insecta, Coleoptera) assemblages in the Pantanal of Mato Grosso

“…Conditions for these dung balls will depend on soil texture, humidity and temperature, all of which vary across the landscape (Halffter and Matthews, 1966;Halffter, 1991). The greatest diversity of dung beetles is found in well-preserved environments where communities may have distinct structures and feeding guilds (Halffter, 1991) and which are sensitive to variation in soil conditions (Almeida et al, 2011;Halffter et al, 1992).…”

Effects of Environmental Heterogeneity on the Composition of Insect Trophic Guilds

“…This was verified in Coleoptera (Halffter and Through environmental heterogeneity, studies have shown that disturbances in vegetation structure resulting from human or animal activity are harmful to insect fauna and cause a reduction in both diversity and abundance (Fonseca and Diehl, 2004;. In addition, replacing native vegetation with exotic species, often montypic, e.g., areas with Pinus spp., can directly interfere with the richness and abundance of insects (Romero-Alcaraz and Ávila, 2000; Ganho and Marinoni, 2006; Almeida et al, 2011).…”