Stanbrook Roisin, Harris Edwin, Jones Martin, Wheater Charles Philip
Biology Department, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
Department of Agriculture and Environment, Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB, UK.
Insects. 2021 Feb 7;12(2):141. doi: 10.3390/insects12020141.
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.
尽管认识到土壤大型动物区系的重要性，但对其功能方面却知之甚少。在此，我们研究了在一个非洲热带森林中，蜣螂体型对112天内大象粪便中大量营养元素（氮、磷、钾和碳）向土壤中移动的影响。我们报告了一个总体上的显著效应，即与对照处理相比，有蜣螂存在时，随着时间推移会有更多的大量营养元素进入土壤。我们还报告了蜣螂体型对大量营养元素移动量有很大影响，与体型较小的蜣螂相比，体型较大的蜣螂从基线测量开始会移动更多的氮、磷、钾和碳。体型较小的蜣螂的存在仅对钾和磷的转移有显著的正向影响。我们提供了首个实验证据，证明非洲蜣螂的体型直接影响循环利用的大量营养元素的类型，并讨论了蜣螂体型对维持土壤肥力的重要性。
