Populations and assemblages living on the edge : dung beetles responses to forests-pasture ecotones

• Autores: Martínez Falcón, Ana Paola; Zurita, Gustavo Andrés; Ortega Martínez, Ilse J.; Moreno Ortega, Claudia Elizabeth
• Año de publicación: 2018
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Dung beetles; Ecotone; Pasturelands; Community ecology; Population ecology; Juniperus; Pine-oak forests; The Mexican Transition Zone; Functional diversity; Hill numbers
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Misiones

Fil: Martínez Falcón, Ana Paola. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas e Ingenierías. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; México.
Fil: Ortega Martínez, Ilse J. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; México.
Fil: Zurita, Gustavo Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Nordeste; Argentina.
Fil: Zurita, Gustavo Andrés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina.
Fil: Zurita, Gustavo Andrés. Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina.
Fil: Moreno Ortega, Claudia Elizabeth. Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo. Instituto de Ciencias Básicas e Ingeniería. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas; México.
Edge effects alter insect biodiversity in several ways. However, we still have a limited understanding on simultaneous responses of ecological populations and assemblages to ecotones, especially in human modified landscapes. We analyze edge effects on dung beetle populations and assemblages between livestock pastures and native temperate forests (Juniperus and pine-oak forests (POFs)) to describe how species abundances and assemblage parameters respond to edge effects through gradients in forest-pasture ecotones. In Juniperus forest 13 species avoided the ecotones: six species showed greater abundance in forest interior and seven in pasturelands, while the other two species had a neutral response to the edge. In a different way, in POF we found five species avoiding the edge (four with greater abundance in pastures and only one in forest), two species had a neutral response, and two showed a unimodal pattern of abundance near to the edge. At the assemblage level edge effects are masked, as species richness, diversity, functional richness, functional evenness, and compositional incidence dissimilarity did not vary along forest-pasture ecotones. However, total abundance and functional divergence showed higher values in pastures in one of the two sampling localities. Also, assemblage similarity based on species’ abundance showed a peak near to the edge in POF. We propose that conservation efforts in human-managed landscapes should focus on mitigating current and delayed edge effects. Ecotone management will be crucial in livestock dominated landscapes to conserve regional biodiversity and the environmental services carried out by dung beetles.