The Response of Dung Beetle Communities to Land Use Change in the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract

The transformation of the Cerrado biome into areas with different levels of activity and anthropic pressure negatively impacts biodiversity. This study evaluated the response of the dung beetle community to changes in land use systems: forests, rubber trees, pastures, and soybeans. Five areas were sampled in each system with a minimum distance of 2 km between them. Dung beetles were collected using pitfall traps, and both local (vegetation density, basal area of wooded vegetation, fractal dimension, litter height, electrical conductance (mV), water content in the soil (%), and soil resistance (kPa)) and landscape-related environmental variables (land use and overall composition and configuration of the landscape surrounding the sampling areas) were measured. In total, 2294 specimens were collected and distributed among 34 species and 18 genera. There was no significant difference in abundance between the systems, but differences in the number of species and biomass were observed between forest and soybean systems, as well as a separation of communities between the tree-covered (forest and rubber tree) and open (pasture and soybean) systems. Density and arboreal basal area were the main predictive variables for the diversity of the dung beetle community, reinforcing the importance of vegetation cover for maintaining diversity, whereas local and landscape-related variables influenced community composition.