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A decrease in taxonomic and functional diversity of dung beetles impacts the ecosystem function of manure removal in altered subtropical habitats
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 1, p e0244783 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The loss of biodiversity—caused mainly by habitat destruction—is one of the environmental problems with major repercussions on ecosystem functioning. Nevertheless, our understanding of the functional consequences of habitat changes on the communities and ecosystems remains limited to a small number of case studies. We evaluated the change in taxonomic and functional diversity of copro-necrophagous beetles (Scarabaeinae) and their relationship with the varying environmental factors present in four habitats with different degrees of disturbance. Furthermore, we evaluated how changes in taxonomic and functional diversity affect the rates of excrement removal. The collections were carried out at four locations in the state of Santa Catarina, Southern Brazil, on natural systems with different degrees of disturbances (forests in advanced and initial succession) and agroecosystems (silviculture and pastures dedicated to livestock). We collected a total of 1266 dung beetles distributed in 35 species and classified into 11 functional groups. The taxonomic and functional diversity analyses showed that habitats that still maintain an arboreal stratum do not present differences between them, in contrast to habitats dedicated to livestock where there was a significant loss of species and functional groups. The distance between the trees, as well as the air and soil temperatures were determining factors in the selection of species and functional groups. Some of these environmental factors explain the differences in functional traits, represented as varying abundances of the species found. The rates of manure removal from the ecosystem were positively correlated to taxonomic and functional richness as well as biomass of beetles. Thus, we can conclude that habitats with tree strata have the capacity to preserve a larger proportion of the regional set of species as well as the important ones, while preserving the taxonomic and functional diversity and the ecosystem functions, such as the excrement removal rate.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Arboreal locomotion
Ecological succession
Forests
01 natural sciences
Trees
Beetles
Cluster Analysis
Biomass
Data Management
Biomass (ecology)
Multidisciplinary
Ecology
Dung Beetles
Eukaryota
Biodiversity
Plants
Terrestrial Environments
Habitats
Insects
Coleoptera
Habitat
Medicine
Ecosystem Functioning
Research Article
Computer and Information Sciences
Arthropoda
Ecological Metrics
Science
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
Ecosystems
Animals
Ecosystem
Scarabaeinae
Taxonomy
Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Organisms
Biology and Life Sciences
Species Diversity
biology.organism_classification
Invertebrates
Manure
010602 entomology
Disturbance (ecology)
Linear Models
Species richness
Zoology
Entomology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ffdf7adeeab1977ce0be3848a988c4f6