Carrión-Paladines Vinicio, Fries Andreas, Muñoz Andrés, Castillo Eddy, García-Ruiz Roberto, Marín-Armijos Diego
Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s/n, Loja 11-01-608, Ecuador.
Departamento de Geología, Minas e Ingeniería Civil (DGMIC), Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s/n, Loja 11-01-608, Ecuador.
Insects. 2021 Mar 30;12(4):306. doi: 10.3390/insects12040306.
This study evaluated the effects of land-use change (L-UCH) on dung beetle community structure (Scarabaeinae) in a disturbed dry ecosystem in southern Ecuador. Five different L-UCH classes were analyzed by capturing the dung beetle species at each site using 120 pitfall traps in total. To determine dung beetle abundance and diversity at each L-UCH, a general linear model (GLM) and a redundancy analysis (RDA) were applied, which correlated environmental and edaphic conditions to the community structure. Furthermore, changes in dung-producing vertebrate fauna were examined, which varied significantly between the different L-UCH classes due to the specific anthropogenic use or level of ecosystem disturbance. The results indicated that soil organic matter, pH, potassium, and phosphorus (RDA: component 1), as well as temperature and altitude (RDA: component 2) significantly affect the abundance of beetles (GLM: value < 0.001), besides the food availability (dung). The highest abundance and diversity (Simpson's index > 0.4, Shannon-Wiener index > 1.10) was found in highly disturbed sites, where soils were generally more compacted, but with a greater food supply due to the introduced farm animals. At highly disturbed sites, the species , , and were found specifically, which makes them useful as bio-indicators for disturbed dry forest ecosystems in southern Ecuador.
本研究评估了土地利用变化（L-UCH）对厄瓜多尔南部一个受干扰的干旱生态系统中蜣螂群落结构（金龟亚科）的影响。通过在每个地点总共使用120个陷阱捕捉蜣螂物种，分析了五种不同的土地利用变化类别。为了确定每个土地利用变化类别下蜣螂的丰度和多样性，应用了一般线性模型（GLM）和冗余分析（RDA），将环境和土壤条件与群落结构相关联。此外，还研究了产粪脊椎动物群落的变化，由于特定的人为利用或生态系统干扰程度不同，不同土地利用变化类别之间存在显著差异。结果表明，除了食物可利用性（粪便）外，土壤有机质、pH值、钾和磷（RDA：成分1）以及温度和海拔（RDA：成分2）对甲虫的丰度有显著影响（GLM： 值<0.001）。在高度受干扰的地点发现了最高的丰度和多样性（辛普森指数>0.4，香农-威纳指数>1.10），这些地点的土壤通常更紧实，但由于引入了农场动物，食物供应更多。在高度受干扰的地点特别发现了 、 和 物种，这使得它们可作为厄瓜多尔南部受干扰的干旱森林生态系统的生物指示物种。
