Dung removal increases under higher dung beetle functional diversity regardless of grazing intensification

Noriega, Jorge Ari and Hortal, Joaquín and deCastro-Arrazola, Indradatta and Alves-Martins, Fernanda and Ortega-Echeverría, Candelaria and Bini, Luis Mauricio and Andrew, Nigel R. and Arellano, Lucrecia and Beynon, Sarah and Davis, Adrian L. V. and Favila, Mario E. and Floate, Kevin D. and Horgan, Finbarr G. and Menéndez, Rosa and Milotic, Tanja and Nervo, Beatrice and Palestrini, Claudia and Rolando, Antonio and Scholtz, Clarke H. and Senyüz, Yakup and Wassmer, Thomas and Ádam, Réka and Araújo, Cristina de O. and Barragan-Ramírez, José Luis and Boros, Gergely and Camero-Rubio, Edgar and Cruz, Melvin and Cuesta, Eva and Damborsky, Miryam Pieri and Deschodt, Christian M. and Rajan, Priyadarsanan Dharma and D’hondt, Bram and Díaz Rojas, Alfonso and Dindar, Kemal and Escobar, Federico and Espinoza, Verónica R. and Ferrer-Paris, José Rafael and Gutiérrez Rojas, Pablo Enrique and Hemmings, Zac and Hernández, Benjamín and Hill, Sarah J. and Hoffmann, Maurice and Jay-Robert, Pierre and Lewis, Kyle and Lewis, Megan and Lozano, Cecilia and Marín-Armijos, Diego and de Farias, Patrícia Menegaz and Murcia-Ordoñez, Betselene and Karimbumkara, Seena Narayanan and Navarrete-Heredia, José Luis and Ortega-Echeverría, Candelaria and Pablo-Cea, José D. and Perrin, William and Pessoa, Marcelo Bruno and Radhakrishnan, Anu and Rahimi, Iraj and Raimundo, Amalia Teresa and Ramos, Diana Catalina and Rebolledo, Ramón E. and Roggero, Angela and Sánchez-Mercado, Ada and Somay, László and Stadler, Jutta and Tahmasebi, Pejman and Triana Céspedes, José Darwin and Santos, Ana M. C. (2023) Dung removal increases under higher dung beetle functional diversity regardless of grazing intensification. Nature Communications, 14 (1): 8070. ISSN 2041-1723

Abstract

Dung removal by macrofauna such as dung beetles is an important process for nutrient cycling in pasturelands. Intensification of farming practices generally reduces species and functional diversity of terrestrial invertebrates, which may negatively affect ecosystem services. Here, we investigate the effects of cattle-grazing intensification on dung removal by dung beetles in field experiments replicated in 38 pastures around the world. Within each study site, we measured dung removal in pastures managed with low- and high-intensity regimes to assess between-regime differences in dung beetle diversity and dung removal, whilst also considering climate and regional variations. The impacts of intensification were heterogeneous, either diminishing or increasing dung beetle species richness, functional diversity, and dung removal rates. The effects of beetle diversity on dung removal were more variable across sites than within sites. Dung removal increased with species richness across sites, while functional diversity consistently enhanced dung removal within sites, independently of cattle grazing intensity or climate. Our findings indicate that, despite intensified cattle stocking rates, ecosystem services related to decomposition and nutrient cycling can be maintained when a functionally diverse dung beetle community inhabits the human-modified landscape.