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650Patterns of diversity and community composition in forests are controlled by a combination of 651 environmental factors, historical events, and stochastic or neutral mechanisms. Each of these 652 processes has been linked to forest community assembly, but their combined contributions to 653 alpha and beta-diversity in forests has not been well explored. Here we use variance partitioning 654 to analyze ~40,000 individual trees of 49 species, collected within 137 ha of sampling area 655 spread across a 900 ha temperate deciduous forest reserve in Pennsylvania to ask: 1) To what 656 extent is site-to-site variation in species richness and community composition of a temperate 657 forest explained by measured environmental gradients and by spatial descriptors (used here to 658 estimate dispersal-assembly or unmeasured, spatially-structured processes)? 2) How does the 659 incorporation of land-use history information increase the importance attributed to deterministic 660 community assembly? And 3) How do the distributions and abundances of individual species 661 within the community correlate with these factors? Environmental variables (i.e., topography, 662 soils, and distance to stream), spatial descriptors (i.e. spatial eigenvectors derived from Cartesian 663 coordinates), and land-use history variables (i.e., land-use type and intensity, forest age, and 664 distance to road), explained about half of the variation in both species richness and community 665 composition. Spatial descriptors explained the most variation, followed by measured 666 environmental variables and then by land-use history. Individual species revealed variable 667 responses to each of these sets of predictor variables. Several species were associated with 668 stream habitats, and others were strictly delimited across opposing north and south-facing slopes. 669Several species were also associated with areas that experienced recent (i.e. < 100 years) human 670 land-use impacts. These results indicate that deterministic factors, including environmental and 671 land-use history variables, are important drivers of community response. The large amount of 672 'unexplained' variation seen here (about 50%) is commonly observed in other such studies 673 Murphy 3 attempting to explain distribution and abundance patterns of plant communities. Determining 674 whether such large fractions of unaccounted for variation are caused by lack of sufficient data, or 675 are an indication of stochastic features of forest communities globally, will remain an important 676 challenge for ecologists in the future. 677 678

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Functional diversity is commonly used to assess the conservation value of ecosystems, but we have not yet established whether functional and taxonomic approaches are interchangeable or complementary to evaluate community dynamics over time and in response to disturbances. We used a five-year dataset of dung beetles from undisturbed forest, primary forest corridors, and Eucalyptus plantations to compare the sensitivity of conceptually equivalent metrics to temporal variation in different anthropogenic disturbances. We compared species richness with functional richness, Pielou's evenness with functional evenness, and Simpson's diversity with Rao's quadratic entropy. We assessed the sensitivity of the metrics to anthropogenic changes. The indices showed complex patterns among habitat types, with with similar responses in some cases and not in other, and little incongruence between the pairs within the same year. The influence of disturbance on longer-term temporal variation over the five-year period revealed lower temporal variation in functional than taxonomic metrics. Both approaches showed greater variation in plantations compared to native forests. We evaluated the variation in taxonomic and functional metrics between consecutive years and among habitats. Most metrics showed similar shifts between years in all habitats, except for species and functional richness. We demonstrate that even conceptually similar indices may not provide similar information on dung beetles responses to disturbance. However, the differences between the indices can yield key insights about the drivers of change, especially over the long-term. It is important to use taxonomic and functional diversity in tandem to better understand community responses to environmental and anthropogenic changes.

This work presents a survey of Scarabaeinae species from a natural grassland area in Bagé, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Samplings were carried out with flight intercept traps and pitfall traps baited with human feces, rotten banana and rotten meat, from December 2005 to November 2006. A total of 4,573 individuals, belonging to 14 genera and 30 species were collected. Onthophagus aff. hirculus Mannerheim, 1829, Canthon podagricus Harold, 1868, Ontherus sulcator (Fabricius, 1775) and Canthidium moestum Harold, 1867 were the most abundant species. Most of the captured assemblage is composed by species coprophagous and generalists preferably necrophagous. Few species were strictly necrophagous and none was classified as saprophagous. The rollers and tunnelers were represented by similar numbers of species.

ABSTRACT. Scarabaeinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) from an eucalyptus forest introduced in an originally grassland region. This study provides data about the Scarabaeinae fauna that occurs in a eucalyptus plantation inserted in an originally open area, describing which are able to establish themselves in this introduced and shaded environment. The survey was carried in an area of eucalyptus monoculture using flight intercept and pitfall traps baited with human feces, rotten banana and carcass, from December 2005 to November 2006. Twenty-eight species were collected, belonging to 11 genera. Of these 28 species, 11 have been previously recorded in grassland and native forest environments of the region, 11 only in grasslands, two were exclusive of eucalyptus plantations and four were not identified at the specific level, which did not allow the achievement of more information on these species in the natural ecosystems of the region. The results showed that species that occur in eucalyptus are habitat generalists, have preference for shaded environments and/or are tourist species. This, however, is one of the few surveys performed in the region. Therefore, additional studies are necessary to obtain more information about the distribution and response of dung beetles to natural and anthropogenic ecosystems of the region. KEYWORDS. Dung beetles, survey, Pampa biome.RESUMO. Este estudo disponibiliza dados sobre a fauna de Scarabaeinae que ocorre em plantio de eucalipto inserido em uma área originalmente aberta, citando quais espécies conseguem se estabelecer neste ambiente introduzido e sombreado. O levantamento de Scarabaeinae foi realizado em uma área de monocultura de eucalipto com armadilhas de interceptação de voo e armadilhas de queda iscadas com fezes humanas, banana em decomposição e carcaça, entre os meses de dezembro de 2005 e novembro de 2006. Foram capturadas 28 espécies pertencentes a 11 gêneros. Destas, 11 já foram registradas em ambientes de campo e mata nativa da região, outras 11 apenas em campo nativo, duas mostraram-se exclusivas ao plantio de eucalipto e quatro não foram identificadas a nível específico, o que não possibilitou a obtenção de maiores informações sobre registros em ecossistemas naturais da região. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que as espécies que ocorrem em eucalipto são generalistas em relação ao hábitat, apresentam preferência por ambientes sombreados e/ou são espécies "turistas". Este, contudo, representa um dos poucos levantamentos realizados na região e por isso, novos estudos são necessários a fim de obter maiores informações acerca da distribuição e resposta dos escarabeíneos aos sistemas naturais e antropizados. PALAVRAS-CHAVE.Rola-bosta, inventário, bioma Pampa.

1. Because of continuing degradation or deforestation in areas of undisturbed primary forest, there is a need to study the relative merit of strategies that mitigate their impacts on biodiversity and associated ecological functionality.2. Here, we provide a global synthesis of forest degradation or deforestation using 48 studies published in peer-reviewed journals that use dung beetles as indicators given their sensitivity to anthropogenic disturbance and their relevance in performing essential ecological functions in terrestrial ecosystems.3. We evaluated forest cover associated with undisturbed primary forest degradation (i.e. degraded primary forest) and undisturbed primary forest deforestation (i.e. secondary forest, forestry plantations and forestry restoration implementation) on species richness, total abundance, biomass, functional groups' presence and ecological functions provided by dung beetles. Additionally, we determined whether if dung beetle responses to forest disturbances were geographically dependent.4. We found lower diversity and a decrease in ecological functions associated with all classes of disturbance in primary forest. However, the effects were less severe in the case of forest degradation compared to complete deforestation with natural regeneration of secondary forest, development of forest plantations or active forest restoration by planting indigenous trees. The Neotropical and Oriental regions are particularly vulnerable, given the elevated rates of undisturbed primary forest deforestation and its negative impact on their assemblages' diversity and ecological functions.