The activity of dung beetles increases foliar nutrient concentration in tropical seedlings

Santos-Heredia, Carolina; del‐Val, Ek; Zárate, Diego A.; Mendoza, Maribel Nava; Jaramillo, Vı́ctor J.

doi:10.1111/btp.12364

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…Whether these new conditions affect plants positively or negatively, is species and context dependent, and may also vary according to the plant's developmental phase (Andresen & Levey, ; Culot et al., ; Griffiths et al., ). Further, dung beetle activity is likely to affect plants not only directly through seed relocation, but also indirectly by creating some of those new conditions encountered by either the relocated seed, or by an already established seedling (e.g., increased nutrient accessibility for plant uptake; Santos‐Heredia et al., ). So, in all, given their ubiquitous presence in tropical forests, as well as the patchy distribution of their activity, dung beetles likely contribute to creating small‐scale spatial heterogeneity in plant regeneration niches (Griffiths et al., ), perhaps even facilitating the co‐existence of plant species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dung burial is achieved through the construction of underground tunnels, and the consequent excavation of soil from deep layers to the surface (Pouvelle, Feer, & Ponge, ). Many important ecological functions are derived from this behavior (Nichols et al., ; Santos‐Heredia & Andresen, ; Santos‐Heredia et al., ), including the accidental movement of seeds, either when seeds in feces are buried (i.e., vertical secondary seed dispersal; Andresen & Feer, ), or when seeds already buried in the soil are moved along their tunnels (Pouvelle, Jouard, Feer, Tully, & Ponge, ). Secondary seed dispersal by tropical dung beetles has been the focus of numerous studies (e.g., Andresen & Feer, ; Culot, Huynen, & Heymann, ; Culot, Mann, Muñoz‐ Lazo, Huynen, & Heymann, ; Griffiths, Bardgett, Louzada, & Barlow, ; Lawson, Mann, & Lewis, ; Shepherd & Chapman, ).…”

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Dung beetle activity affects rain forest seed bank dynamics and seedling establishment

et al. 2019

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Dung beetles relocate vertebrate feces under the soil surface, and this behavior has many ecological consequences. In tropical forests, for example, seeds defecated by mammals that are subsequently buried by dung beetles are less likely to suffer predation. While the effects of dung beetles on the fate of defecated seeds have been relatively well studied, their effect on seeds already buried in the soil has not. To contribute to fill this gap, we designed a study with three objectives: (a) Describe the vertical re-distribution of soil seeds that occurs due to dung beetle activity; (b) Determine if beetle activity favors establishment of seedlings from the soil seed bank; and (c) Determine if the effect of dung beetles is stronger in sites of recurrent mammal defecation. We carried out three complementary field experiments, one with artificial seeds (plastic beads) of three sizes buried at known depths, one with two species of seeds buried at those same depths, and one with the natural soil seed bank in sites of single vs. recurrent defecation. Buried beads were moved by dung beetles along the vertical axis, both upwards (9.5%) and downwards (11.5%); smaller beads were more frequently moved downwards while the contrary occurred for larger beads. Dung beetle activity caused an increase in seedling establishment, both from experimentally buried seeds and from the natural seed bank. Defecation recurrence had no effect on seedling establishment. We conclude that dung beetle activity affects seed bank dynamics with important consequences for seedling establishment in tropical forests.Abstract in Spanish is available with online material.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dung beetle activity affects rain forest seed bank dynamics and seedling establishment

et al. 2019

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“…, Santos‐Heredia et al. ). Mammal abundance and the abundance and species richness of dung beetles have been found to covary (Andresen and Laurance , Viljanen et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Most dung beetles use mammal dung as a food and nesting resource, meaning that dung availability is directly related to dung beetle reproduction and survival (Hanski and Cambefort 1991, Moczek and Emlen 2000, Shafiei et al 2001. Dung beetles play an important role in dung removal and associated ecosystem functions such as secondary seed dispersal and nutrient availability, factors which may ultimately influence plant dynamics and diversity (Spector 2006, Slade et al 2007, Santos-Heredia et al 2016. Mammal abundance and the abundance and species richness of dung beetles have been found to covary (Andresen and Laurance 2007, Viljanen et al 2010, Culot et al 2013, Nichols et al 2016), yet beyond estimating interactions from co-occurrence data (Nichols et al 2016), there are no dung beetle-mammal association networks and there is a lack of data demonstrating this association directly through trapping with native mammal dung (Nichols et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinctions of interactions: quantifying a dung beetle–mammal network

et al. 2018

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Loss of large‐bodied mammals across the globe through hunting, habitat degradation, and fragmentation is one of the most significant anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Cascading effects of these extinctions through ecosystems have been little studied, although correlative studies have revealed co‐extinctions in closely linked groups, with implications for ecosystem structure and function. Despite playing important roles in seed dispersal and hence seedling recruitment, mammals have been largely neglected in network studies. Similarly, the role of secondary seed dispersers, such as ants and dung beetles, has been largely unexplored. Most dung beetles rely on mammal feces for feeding and breeding and provide a suite of important ecosystem functions and services. While dung beetle community responses to environmental change have been widely investigated, studies quantifying the network of associations between dung beetle and mammal species are lacking. By developing the first quantitative mammal–dung beetle networks, we address several important knowledge gaps contributing to the understanding of how interactions in networks involving mammals and secondary insect seed dispersers are structured. We use the resulting quantitative interaction networks to model mammal species extinction scenarios to further explore the consequences for dung beetle populations, and the extent to which networks change the strength of interactions through resource switching. Dung beetle feeding and breeding networks did not differ significantly in structure and showed high nestedness and low levels of trophic specialization. Simulations suggested that mammal extinction scenarios based on mammal body mass and mammal dung volume will impact dung beetle populations to a greater extent than random scenarios of mammal loss. Thus, despite their generalist feeding preferences, realistic mammal extinction scenarios have the potential to negatively impact the dung beetle community, which may have consequences for ecosystem functioning.

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“…Because of their trophic and nesting behaviour, these beetles perform various ecological functions (or ecosystem services), such as nutrient recycling, secondary seed dispersal, bioturbation, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and suppression of parasites that develop in faeces and decaying carcasses by incorporating the food resource into the soil (Nichols et al ., ; Hammer et al ., ). These functions improve the hydrological properties of soil (Brown et al ., ) and foliar phosphorus concentration in seedlings (Santos‐Heredia et al ., ), increase plant height and biomass (Kabir et al ., ; Gabiati et al ., ; Bang et al ., ), and reduce seedling clustering (Lawson et al ., ) and greenhouse gas emissions such as methane from cattle farming (Slade et al ., ). Consequently, environmental changes strongly affect the performance of their ecological functions (Braga et al ., ; Gray et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest complexity drives dung beetle assemblages along an edge‐interior gradient in the southwest Amazon rainforest

Bitencourt

Dimas

Silva

et al. 2019

Ecological Entomology

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1. The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis predicts that heterogeneous habitats may provide more niches and diverse ways of exploiting environmental resources, thereby allowing more species to coexist, persist and diversify. 2. We aimed to investigate how an edge‐interior gradient related to forest complexity influences species composition, abundance and richness of dung beetles in the western Amazon rainforest. We expected dung beetle abundance and richness to increase along the forest edge‐interior gradient, in accordance with the habitat heterogeneity hypothesis. We also expected strong changes in species composition driven by species turnover in the forest interior and nestedness along the forest edges. We sampled dung beetles using baited pitfall traps across an edge‐interior gradient. We also assessed the variation in forest features along the edge‐interior gradient to identify changes in forest complexity. 3. Both species richness and abundance of dung beetles increased along the forest edge‐interior, following the gradient of forest complexity. The Sorensen dissimilarity of dung beetle assemblages was higher among sampling units placed near the forest edge, although neither turnover, nor nestedness was different between the extremes of the forest edge‐interior gradient. There was a clear compositional change along the edge‐interior gradient mostly driven by species turnover. Individual indicator value analysis revealed that species were strongly associated with the forest interior conditions. 4. The simplification of the Amazon rainforest near clearings causes compositional changes in dung beetle assemblages. These changes are characterised by species‐poor and low‐abundance assemblages and may impair dung beetle ecological functions and therefore forest recovery.

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The activity of dung beetles increases foliar nutrient concentration in tropical seedlings

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Dung beetle activity affects rain forest seed bank dynamics and seedling establishment

Dung beetle activity affects rain forest seed bank dynamics and seedling establishment

Extinctions of interactions: quantifying a dung beetle–mammal network

Forest complexity drives dung beetle assemblages along an edge‐interior gradient in the southwest Amazon rainforest

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