TY - JOUR T1 - Effect of forest fragmentation on dung beetle communities and functional consequences for plant regeneration JF - Ecography Y1 - 2003 A1 - Andresen, Ellen SP - 87 EP - 97 KW - dung beetle KW - dung removal KW - Scarabaeinae KW - seed dispersal VL - 26 N1 - have a copy and digital version ER - TY - JOUR T1 - From forest to pasture: an evaluation of the influence of environment and biogeography on the structure of dung beetle (Scarabaeinae) assemblages along three altitudinal grafients in the Neotropical region JF - Ecography Y1 - 2007 A1 - Escobar S. , Federico A1 - Halffter, Gonzalo A1 - Arellano, Lucrecia SP - 193 EP - 208 AB - The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of environmental (associated with the expansion of cattle ranching) and biogeographical factors on the diversity of dung beetle (Scarabaeinae) assemblages along three altitudinal gradients in the Neotropical region. One gradient is located in the Mexican Transition Zone, on the Cofre de Perote mountain, the other two are in the northern Andes (the Chiles Volcano and the Rı ́o Cusiana Basin). For the three gradients, the number of species decreased as altitude increased. On the Cofre de Perote, regardless of altitude, the number of species and of individuals was similar in both forest and pasture, while species composition was different between habitats. On this mountain, species turnover in pastures was characterized by the addition of new species as altitude increased. In the northern Andes, species diversity was always greater in the forest than in the pasture, and species turnover between habitats was notably influenced by species loss with increasing altitude. As such the pasture fauna of the northern Andes was an impoverished derivative of the fauna present in the forests at the same altitude characterized by species of Neotropical affinity with a limited capacity for colonizing open, sunnier habitats. The opposite occurs in the areas used by cattle on the Cofre de Perote. This habitat has its own fauna, which is mainly comprised of Holarctic and Afrotropical species adapted to the prevailing environmental conditions of areas lacking arboreal vegetation. These results suggest that the impact on beetle communities caused by human activities can differ depending on the geographic position of each mountain and, particularly, the biogeographical history of the species assemblage that lives there. VL - 30 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Life history traits and resource utilisation in an assemblage of north temperate Aphodius dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) JF - Ecography Y1 - 1997 A1 - Gittings, T. A1 - Giller, P. S. SP - 55 EP - 66 KW - cattle dung KW - community KW - coprophagous beetles KW - Europe KW - GUILD AB - To help understand and interpret the structure and function of Aphodius dung beetle assemblages, life history traits and resource utilisation were studied for the ten species comprising the local assemblage of intensively grazed pastures in southern Ireland. Most species were univoltine but one species (A. fimetarius) was at least partly bivoltine. However, temporal overlap in adult flight periods does not necessarily imply overlap in resource use. Three different strategies of ovarian development were distinguished and were related to the preferred oviposition site and successional occurrence of the various species. Evidence suggested that absence of mature eggs in a female's ovaries did not necessarily imply that a female was in a non-reproductive state. Two species (A. prodromus and A. sphacelatus) did not breed in dung; in the laboratory larvae were reared in decaying vegetation. One species (A. erraticus) developed in brood masses beneath the dung pat. Larvae of all the other species developed within the dung pat. There were consistent interspecific differences in the larval development rates, with two species (A. rufipes and A. rufus) overwintering mainly as prepupae and the other species mainly as adults. Previous studies have considered Aphodius assemblages as single guilds but the detailed natural histories of these species may affect guild designation. VL - 20 UR - ://A1997WK11400006 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Resource quality and the colonisation and succession of coprophagous dung beetles JF - Ecography Y1 - 1998 A1 - Gittings, Tom A1 - Giller, Paul S. SP - 581 EP - 592 KW - colonization mammals KW - communities KW - dung beetle KW - ecosystem services VL - 21 N1 - have copy ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Aggregated distribution of resources creates competition refuges for rainforest dung beetles JF - Ecography Y1 - 2005 A1 - Horgan, F. G. SP - 603 EP - 618 VL - 28 UR - ://000231858800005 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Spatial separation of Afrotropical dung beetle guilds: a trade-off between competitive superiority and energetic constraints (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) JF - Ecography Y1 - 2003 A1 - Krell, Frank-Thorsten A1 - Krell-Westerwalbesloh, Sylvia A1 - Weiss, I. A1 - Eggleton, P. A1 - Linsenmair, K. Eduard SP - 210 EP - 222 VL - 26 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Modelling the species richness distribution for French Aphodiidae (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea) JF - Ecography Y1 - 2004 A1 - Lobo, Jorge M. A1 - Jay-Robert, Pierre A1 - Lumaret, Jean-Pierre SP - 145 EP - 156 KW - Dung beetles AB - The species richness distribution of the French Aphodiidae was predicted using Generalized Linear Models to relate the number of species to spatial, topographic and climate variables. The entire French territory was studied, divided into 301 0.72 VL - 27 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Patch size and colonisation patterns: an experimental analysis using north temperate coprophagous dung beetles JF - Ecography Y1 - 2000 A1 - Finn, John A. A1 - Giller, Paul S. SP - 315 EP - 327 AB - The relationship between dung pad size and both adult colonisation and larval development was investigated in an assemblage of north temperate dung beetles (Geotrupes, Aphodius and Sphaeridium ) using both dung pads and baited pitfall traps. Wet weight of 22-day-old natural dung pads was found to vary widely in the field ( VL - 23 SN - 0906-7590 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Testing for seasonal displacement in a dung beetle guild JF - Ecography Y1 - 1995 A1 - Palmer, Miquel SP - 173 EP - 177 KW - anima KW - Animalia- KW - Aphodius-sp. (Coleoptera-) KW - Arthropoda- KW - Climatology- (Environmental-Sciences) KW - Coleoptera-: Insecta- KW - Development- KW - Digestive-System (Ingestion-and-Assimilation) KW - Ecology- (Environmental-Sciences) KW - Invertebrata- KW - Nutrition- KW - Physiology- AB - The temporal overlap between seasonal distribution of adults of 14 congeneric dung beetle species (Aphodius spp.) was determined during one year, based on 11122 captures. The mean seasonal distribution of adults (mean of the sampling dates weighted by the abundance value) was analyzed to elucidate deviations from randomness. In addition, the effect of the shape of seasonal distribution of adults was investigated. In both analyses randomization methods were used. A clear trend exists maximizing the temporal displacement between middle points of chronologically consecutive species: newly emerging species appear every 26 +- 16 days. This trend minimizes the number of species pairs with no or very little temporal overlap. In contrast, the mean temporal overlap of the whole guild seems unaffected, with some species pairs showing a large temporal overlap. Whether the observed pattern can be attributed to interspecific competition must be addressed experimentally. VL - 18 N1 - 1995ArticleEnglish ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Large-scale spatial ecology of dung beetles JF - Ecography Y1 - 2001 A1 - Roslin, T. SP - 511 EP - 524 KW - abundance KW - assemblages KW - coexistence KW - communities KW - FINLAND KW - gradients KW - LATITUDINAL KW - METAPOPULATION DYNAMICS KW - PLANT-SPECIES RICHNESS KW - REGIONAL DIVERSITY KW - Scarabaeidae AB - Recent modelling work shows that the composition of local communities can be influenced by the configuration of the surrounding landscape, but many of these models assume that all community members display the same type of extinction- colonization dynamics. I use Aphodius dung beetles to test the hypothesis that interspecific differences in habitat selection and dispersal capacity may translate into differences in spatial population dynamics, even among closely related species coexisting on the same resource. If this is true, then groups of species with different. characteristics would show different responses to landscape configuration. I first divided the area of Finland into a grid, and used collection records to describe regional variation in the Aphodius fauna of open cattle pastures. I then sampled dung beetles on 131 cattle farms, to examine whether the subset of species found on each farm was related to the density of pastures in the surrounding grid square. Finally, I used historical records to analyze changes in dung beetle communities during the last century, when there was great loss of pasture. Overall, I found no relationship between landscape characteristics and the total proportion of the regional species pool that was found on each farm. However, the distribution of species among guilds with different habitat specificity did related to the configuration of the landscape, and the pattern was most pronounced in a specialists species with limited dispersal. Associations between community structure and landscape configuration were superimposed on two much larger and stronger patterns: a large-scale latitudinal gradient in regional species richness, and a decelerating gain of species to local communities with an increasing regional species pool. I conclude that ecological variation among community members is a crucial factor in the analysis of local community composition, and that local species richness should always be conditioned on regional richness. VL - 24 N1 - EnglishArticleOCTECOGRAPHY ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Habitat selection and offspring survival rate in three paracoprid dung beetles: the influence of soil type and soil moisture JF - Ecography Y1 - 1995 A1 - Sowig,Peter SP - 147 EP - 154 AB - Paracoprid dung beetles build brood chambers in the soil beneath a dung pat and provide them with dung Onthophagus species lay one egg into each chamber This paper deals with the influence of soil type and soil moisture on micro-habitat selection and survival of offspring m three middle-European Onthophagus-species (O coenobita, O fracticonis and O vacca) Discrimination between sandy soils with three different loam contents (0%, 20%, 40%) and four different water contents (4%, 8%, 12%, 16%) was tested in the laboratory During the first 24 h of each replicate beetles which colonized one of the patches did not distinguish between different soil conditions Emigration rates, measured as time when 50% of all individuals had left the patch, and numbers of brood chambers proved to be species specific and depended on soil moisture and soil type Survival rates of the larvae in the brood chambers were influenced nearly exclusively by soil moisture The results are discussed in relation to the ecology of the three species and in context with optimal foraging theories VL - 18 UR - http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1995.tb00335.x ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Brood care in the dung beetle Onthophagus vacca (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae): The effect of soil moisture on time budget, nest structure, and reproductive success JF - Ecography Y1 - 1996 A1 - Sowig,Peter SP - 254 EP - 258 KW - Animalia- KW - Animals- KW - Arthropoda- KW - Arthropods- KW - Behavior- KW - Coleoptera-: Insecta- KW - Ecology- (Environmental-Sciences) KW - Invertebrata- KW - Onthophagus-vacca (Coleoptera-) KW - Physiology- KW - Reproductive-System (Reproduction-) KW - Scarabaeidae- (Coleoptera-) KW - Soil-Science AB - Under laboratory conditions brood care behaviour, nest structure and weight of dung supply in brood chambers of the dung beetle Onthophagus vacca proved to depend on water content of the soil beneath the dung. The substrate in a bucket beneath the dung pat was dry sand (4% water content) or moist sand (8% water content). Emigrating beetles were trapped and counted at 12 h intervals. In a total of 109 replicates one pair was released on an artificial 1000 g dung pat. From 95 replicates in which brood chambers were built the following results were derived: 1) Breeding females and resident males which helped the female stayed longer in dung pats on dry sand than in those on moist sand. 2) Nest architecture was influenced by substrate moisture: length of main tunnels did not differ between nests in dry and moist sand, but total length of side tunnels was shorter in dry sand. 3) Numbers of brood chambers were equal in both substrate types, weight of the dung supplies was larger in dry sand. 4) Offspring size was not only influenced by dung provision in the brood chambers. Beetles emerging from chambers in dry sand were smaller than those emerging from moist sand even if the amount of dung supply was equal. VL - 19 N1 - 1996ArticleEnglish ER -