Tropical dung beetle morphological traits predict functional traits and show intraspecific differences across land uses.

ABSTRACT: Functional traits and functional diversity measures are increasingly being used to examine land use effects on biodiversity and community assembly rules. Morphological traits are often used directly as functional traits. However, behavioral characteristics are more difficult to measure. Establishing methods to derive behavioral traits from morphological measurements is necessary to facilitate their inclusion in functional diversity analyses. We collected morphometric data from over 1,700 individuals of 12 species of dung beetle to establish whether morphological measurements can be used as predictors of behavioral traits. We also compared morphology among individuals collected from different land uses (primary forest, logged forest, and oil palm plantation) to identify whether intraspecifi

SUBMITTER: Raine EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6157683 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature