Comparison of dung beetle communities (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) in oil palm plantations and native forest in the eastern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract

In order to evaluate the impact of oil palm cultivation on dung beetles in the eastern Brazilian Amazon, comparisons were made of communities in oil palm plantations and native forest. Pitfall traps baited with human feces were buried to soil level in plantations and surrounding forests. Fifty traps were used in each type of vegetation, placed at 50 m intervals along five transects. Dung beetle communities in oil palm plantations have lower species richness (18 spp.) than in surrounding tropical rainforest (48 spp.), as well as altered species composition. Total abundance of individuals was not significantly different between the two habitats, but species composition was greatly different. Species evenness was greater in the forest. Forest corridors for the preservation of dung beetle species may need to be much wider than current designs. The erosion of biodiversity in dung beetles due to oil palm monoculture parallels what has been seen in other animal taxa in tropical tree plantations.

Insights into dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) distribution along an elevational gradient in a tepui table-top mountain in the Brazilian Amazon

“…Interestingly, D. nisus, a broadly distributed species in Brazilian open vegetation (e.g., the Cerrado savanna and Caatinga dry forest, Brazil; Cassenote et al 2020), was recorded in the highlands. Conversely, the species from the lower elevation are all commonly found in Amazon rainforests (Quintero and Halffter 2009;Cupello and Vaz-de-Mello 2013;Ratcliffe 2013;Harada et al 2020). The contrasting highland-lowland tepuis vegetation structure resembles those observed in other similar tropical elevational gradients, such as the brejos de altitudethe elevational enclaves of rainforest inserted in Caatinga dry forests in Brazil (e.g., Pôrto et al 2004;Silva 2011;Salomão et al 2022).…”

Replacing low-intensity cattle pasture with oil palm conserves dung beetle functional diversity when paired with forest protection

“…Finally, while forests seemingly protect functional diversity and wider biodiversity (Gilroy et al 2015), current riparian corridor widths may not be sufficient to maximise biodiversity protection (Mitchell et al, 2018;Harada et al, 2020). Future management of oil palm landscapes should therefore seek to mandate minimum widths for riparian strips, maximizing the potential for these remnant habitats to provide a refuge for the most vulnerable species, whilst also boosting intra-farmland biodiversity and ecosystem function.…”

Current status of dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Scarabaeinae) diversity and conservation in Natural Protected Areas in Chiapas (Mexico)

“…For example, in the Lacandona rainforest, a region that has been seriously affected by the accelerated change in land use, mainly due to the rapid expansion of oil palm crops, replacing large areas of forest in Chiapas (Castellanos-Navarrete and Jansen 2018). Unlike other tree crops, oil palm is a particularly poor substitute for either primary or degraded forests and especially damaging to biodiversity (Fitzherbert et al 2008), including the functional (Edwards et al 2014) and taxonomic diversity of dung beetles (Gray et al 2014;Harada et al 2020).…”