Habitat continuity matters: Ancient woodlands tend to have higher biomass and catching rate of dung beetles, mainly driven by one large species

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Ancient woodlands differ from recent woodlands by numerous abiotic and biotic factors, including soil properties. Several animal species are more abundant in ancient than in recent woodlands, but this has been only rarely tested for saprophagous taxa and not at all for dung beetles, which are common in temperate woodlands. Beside habitat continuity, tree age can have also an effect on woodland inhabiting animals, especially on saprophagous taxa. To analyze the effects of both habitat continuity and tree age we studied dung beetles in a continuous north-west German woodland with baited pitfall traps on basis of a factorial design. We compared species diversity (Shannon-Wiener-Index and Pielou's Evenness), catching rates, biomass and community composition of dung beetles. With only 18 recorded species from 20 study plots, dung beetle communities were species-poor and dominated by one large tunnelling species. The main result is that catching rate and biomass of dung beetles were higher in ancient woodlands, which was due to the particularly high catching rate of the most dominant tunnelling species and one dweller species. Tree age alone had a minor impact, but affects significantly one rare species. Diverging habitat quality of ancient and recent woodlands likely explains differences in the communities of dung beetles in woodlands of different habitat continuity. Old trees in recent woodlands could not compensate for habitat continuity of ancient woodlands.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103501
JournalActa Oecologica
Volume102
Number of pages7
ISSN1146-609X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.01.2020

    Research areas

  • Aphodiidae, Coprophagous beetles, Decomposition, Ecosystem engineer, Forest, Scarabaeidae
  • Ecosystems Research

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Lena Hampe

Publications

  1. European welfare states constructing “Unaccompanied Minors”
  2. General Ne Win’s Legacy of Burmanization in Myanmar
  3. Anmerkung zu BVerwG, Urt. v. 2.3.2017 – 3 C 19/15
  4. Goethe e il mito in Faust II
  5. Conceptual frameworks and methods for advancing invasion ecology
  6. Collectivizing Convenience?
  7. Networking
  8. Governance approaches to address scale issues in biodiversity management – current situation and ways forward
  9. The roughness of neural networks. Jimi hendrix, holly herndon, GPT-3, timbre transfer and the promising failure aesthetics of musical AIs
  10. Effect of Zn addition on hot tearing behaviour of Mg-0.5Ca-xZn alloys
  11. Leading digital innovation in schools
  12. Where you search is what you get
  13. The effect of organic acids and alcohols on precipitation of phosphate using calcined seashell powder
  14. Dynamics of species diversity and composition of herbaceous vegetation in fenced and unfenced plots
  15. Best-Practice-Beispiel: Wie kann Mentoring in die neue Studienorganisation implementiert werden?
  16. Guided internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia
  17. How to measure energy-efficiency of software
  18. Taguchi approach for the optimization of refill friction stir spot welding parameters for AA2198-T8 aluminum alloy
  19. Implementing sustainable food forests
  20. Modernization
  21. Verbalised Speechlessness: Online mourning practices
  22. Alles der Reihe nach!
  23. A formalization of one of the main claims of “‘Dunbar’s number’ deconstructed” by Lindenfors et al. 2021
  24. Applying the pathways to nature connectedness at a societal scale
  25. Das optische Unbewusste
  26. Evidence-based Entrepreneurship (EBE): A systematic approach to cumulative science
  27. The Case of Willetta Huggins