Dung beetle-mammal associations: methods, research trends and future directions.

ABSTRACT: Dung beetles are increasingly used as a study taxon-both as bioindicators of environmental change, and as a model system for exploring ecosystem functioning. The advantages of this focal taxon approach are many; dung beetles are abundant in a wide range of terrestrial ecosystems, speciose, straightforward to sample, respond to environmental gradients and can be easily manipulated to explore species-functioning relationships. However, there remain large gaps in our understanding of the relationship between dung beetles and the mammals they rely on for dung. Here we review the literature, showing that despite an increase in the study of dung beetles linked to ecosystem functioning and to habitat and land use change, there has been little research into their associations with mammals. We summ

SUBMITTER: Raine EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6408906 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature