The effect of dung beetle size on soil nutrient mobilization in an afrotropical forest

Stanbrook, Roisin, Harris, Edwin, Jones, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2510-8697 and Wheater, Charles Phillip (2021) The effect of dung beetle size on soil nutrient mobilization in an afrotropical forest. Insects, 12 (2). 141. ISSN 2075-4450

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects12020141

Abstract

Despite recognition of its importance, little is known about functional aspects of soil macrofauna. Here, we investigated the effect of dung beetle body size on macronutrient movement (N, P, K, and C) from elephant dung into soil over 112 days in an Afrotropical forest. We report a large overall effect where more macronutrients are moved into soil over time when beetles are present compared to a control treatment. We also report a large effect of beetle body size on the amount of macronutrient movement, with larger dung beetles moving more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and carbon from baseline measurements when compared to smaller sized dung beetles. The presence of smaller sized dung beetles showed a significant positive effect on potassium and phosphorus transfer only. We provide the first experimental evidence that the body size of African dungs directly influences the type of macronutrients recycled and discuss the importance of dung beetle body size for maintaining soil fertility.

Item Type:	Article (Article)
Peer-reviewed:	Yes
Date Deposited:	21 Jun 2024 15:24
Publisher:	MDPI
Additional Information:	This is an open access article which first appeared in Insects, published by MDPI
Divisions:	Faculties > Science and Engineering
Subject terms:	Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Entomology, dung beetles, functional traits, nutrient transfer, soil fertility, ECOSYSTEM SERVICES, BIODIVERSITY, COLEOPTERA, HABITAT, CLASSIFICATION, DECOMPOSITION, COMMUNITY, FRAMEWORK, RICHNESS, dung beetles, functional traits, nutrient transfer, soil fertility, 0608 Zoology
Data Access Statement:	The data presented in this study are openly available in FigShare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13713946.v1 (accessed on 11 December 2020). This manuscript contains material that has previously formed part of a PhD thesis; Stanbrook, R., The Scarabaeidae dung beetles of the Aberdare National Park, Republic of Kenya: ecosystem services and factors affecting diversity and abundance. Preprint at http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/621286/ (accessed on 17 December 2020) and is publicly available under a Creative Commons license according to the requirements of the institution which awarded the qualification.
URI:	https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/634928
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12020141
ISSN	2075-4450
e-ISSN	2075-4450

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