Linking biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of dung beetles in south and Southeast Asian tropical rainforests

We investigated the impacts of habitat disturbance and the resulting changes in biodiversity on ecosystem function in South and Southeast Asian forests using dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) as a focal taxon. Dung beetle sampling and dung burial experiments were conducted in intact, modified, and fragmented forest habitats in three different countries: Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. Data analysis was split into two themes for analysis: the effect of habitat modification, and the effect of fragmentation. The proportion of dung mass removed was modelled against habitat modification, and the species richness and abundances of the entire dung beetle community, the tunneller communities, and the roller communities. Abundance and richness of tunnellers and the degree of habitat disturbance were the main determinants of dung burial in the habitat modification analysis. Total dung beetle abundance was the main determinant of dung burial in the fragmentation analysis. Through our combined analysis, we show that habitat modification and forest fragmentation impact dung removal activity, albeit through different aspects of the dung beetle community structure.