Physiological traits explain the response of dung beetles to land use at local and regional scales.

ABSTRACT: Physiological traits in insects are useful to understand their distribution at different spatial scales, their presence and abundance, and the use of different habitats. This study explored physiological parameters of dung beetles in two contrasting ecoregions of Argentina: Paranaense Forest and Dry Chaco. We capture dung beetles from both regions and habitats with different degrees of disturbance within each region, and performed lab experiments on metabolic rate and thermal tolerance. This study revealed that dung beetles inhabiting regions or habitats with higher temperatures (Dry Chaco and open pastures) showed greater temperature tolerance compared to those inhabiting regions or habitats with lower temperatures (Paranaense Forest and habitats preserving tree canopy). Furthermore, in t

SUBMITTER: Gimenez Gomez VC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11876609 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature