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Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador
SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study analyzed the abundance and diversity of dung beetle communities at several disturbed sites in a tropical dry forest ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Dung beetle community diversity indices with different land uses were related to environmental variables (altitude, temperatur...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8066223/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12040306 |
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author | Carrión-Paladines, Vinicio Fries, Andreas Muñoz, Andrés Castillo, Eddy García-Ruiz, Roberto Marín-Armijos, Diego |
author_facet | Carrión-Paladines, Vinicio Fries, Andreas Muñoz, Andrés Castillo, Eddy García-Ruiz, Roberto Marín-Armijos, Diego |
author_sort | Carrión-Paladines, Vinicio |
collection | PubMed |
description | SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study analyzed the abundance and diversity of dung beetle communities at several disturbed sites in a tropical dry forest ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Dung beetle community diversity indices with different land uses were related to environmental variables (altitude, temperature), soil physicochemical properties, and food supply (manure). The results indicated that the species Canthon balteatus, Dichotomius problematicus, and Onthophagus confusus are abundant in disturbed sites, where soils are generally more compact and less fertile but contain a greater food supply. These findings can help decision makers to identify disturbed areas and to implement adequate policies for sustainable environmental management. ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the effects of land-use change (L-UCH) on dung beetle community structure (Scarabaeinae) in a disturbed dry ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Five different L-UCH classes were analyzed by capturing the dung beetle species at each site using 120 pitfall traps in total. To determine dung beetle abundance and diversity at each L-UCH, a general linear model (GLM) and a redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied, which correlated environmental and edaphic conditions to the community structure. Furthermore, changes in dung-producing vertebrate fauna were examined, which varied significantly between the different L-UCH classes due to the specific anthropogenic use or level of ecosystem disturbance. The results indicated that soil organic matter, pH, potassium, and phosphorus (RDA: component 1), as well as temperature and altitude (RDA: component 2) significantly affect the abundance of beetles (GLM: p value < 0.001), besides the food availability (dung). The highest abundance and diversity (Simpson’s index > 0.4, Shannon-Wiener index > 1.10) was found in highly disturbed sites, where soils were generally more compacted, but with a greater food supply due to the introduced farm animals. At highly disturbed sites, the species Canthon balteatus, Dichotomius problematicus, and Onthphagus confuses were found specifically, which makes them useful as bio-indicators for disturbed dry forest ecosystems in southern Ecuador. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8066223 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-80662232021-04-25 Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador Carrión-Paladines, Vinicio Fries, Andreas Muñoz, Andrés Castillo, Eddy García-Ruiz, Roberto Marín-Armijos, Diego Insects Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: This study analyzed the abundance and diversity of dung beetle communities at several disturbed sites in a tropical dry forest ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Dung beetle community diversity indices with different land uses were related to environmental variables (altitude, temperature), soil physicochemical properties, and food supply (manure). The results indicated that the species Canthon balteatus, Dichotomius problematicus, and Onthophagus confusus are abundant in disturbed sites, where soils are generally more compact and less fertile but contain a greater food supply. These findings can help decision makers to identify disturbed areas and to implement adequate policies for sustainable environmental management. ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the effects of land-use change (L-UCH) on dung beetle community structure (Scarabaeinae) in a disturbed dry ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Five different L-UCH classes were analyzed by capturing the dung beetle species at each site using 120 pitfall traps in total. To determine dung beetle abundance and diversity at each L-UCH, a general linear model (GLM) and a redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied, which correlated environmental and edaphic conditions to the community structure. Furthermore, changes in dung-producing vertebrate fauna were examined, which varied significantly between the different L-UCH classes due to the specific anthropogenic use or level of ecosystem disturbance. The results indicated that soil organic matter, pH, potassium, and phosphorus (RDA: component 1), as well as temperature and altitude (RDA: component 2) significantly affect the abundance of beetles (GLM: p value < 0.001), besides the food availability (dung). The highest abundance and diversity (Simpson’s index > 0.4, Shannon-Wiener index > 1.10) was found in highly disturbed sites, where soils were generally more compacted, but with a greater food supply due to the introduced farm animals. At highly disturbed sites, the species Canthon balteatus, Dichotomius problematicus, and Onthphagus confuses were found specifically, which makes them useful as bio-indicators for disturbed dry forest ecosystems in southern Ecuador. MDPI 2021-03-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8066223/ /pubmed/33808282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12040306 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Carrión-Paladines, Vinicio Fries, Andreas Muñoz, Andrés Castillo, Eddy García-Ruiz, Roberto Marín-Armijos, Diego Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title | Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title_full | Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title_fullStr | Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title_full_unstemmed | Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title_short | Effects of Land-Use Change on the Community Structure of the Dung Beetle (Scarabaeinae) in an Altered Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador |
title_sort | effects of land-use change on the community structure of the dung beetle (scarabaeinae) in an altered ecosystem in southern ecuador |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8066223/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33808282 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12040306 |
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