Dung beetles increase plant growth: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT: The ecosystem services provided by dung beetles are well known and valued. Dung beetles bury dung for feeding and breeding, and it is generally thought that the process of burying dung increases nutrient uptake by plant roots, which promotes plant growth. Many studies have tested the effects of dung beetles on plant growth, but there has been no quantitative synthesis of these studies. Here we use a multi-level meta-analysis to estimate the average effect of dung beetles on plant growth and investigate factors that moderate this effect. We identified 28 publications that investigated dung beetle effects on plant growth. Of these, 24 contained the minimum quantitative data necessary to include in a meta-analysis. Overall, we found that dung beetles increased plant growth by 17%; the 95% CI

SUBMITTER: Anderson DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10950467 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature