Roisin Stanbrook1, Edwin Harris2, Martin Jones3, Charles Philip Wheater3. 1. Biology Department, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA. 2. Department of Agriculture and Environment, Harper Adams University, Newport TF10 8NB, UK. 3. Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M1 5GD, UK.
Abstract
Despite recognition of its importance, little is known about functional aspects of soil macrofauna. Here, we investigated the effect of dung beetle body size on macronutrient movement (N, P, K, and C) from elephant dung into soil over 112 days in an Afrotropical forest. We report a large overall effect where more macronutrients are moved into soil over time when beetles are present compared to a control treatment. We also report a large effect of beetle body size on the amount of macronutrient movement, with larger dung beetles moving more nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and carbon from baseline measurements when compared to smaller sized dung beetles. The presence of smaller sized dung beetles showed a significant positive effect on potassium and phosphorus transfer only. We provide the first experimental evidence that the body size of African dungs directly influences the type of macronutrients recycled and discuss the importance of dung beetle body size for maintaining soil fertility.
Despite recognition of its imn class="Chemical">portance, little is known about functional aspects of soil macrofauna. Here, we investigated the effect of dung beetle body size on macronutrient movement (N, P, K, and C) from elephant dung into soil over 112 days in an Afrotropical forest. We repn>ort a large overall effect where more macronutrients are moved into soil over time when beetles are present compared to a control treatment. We also repclass="Chemical">n>ort a large effect of beetle body size on the amount of macronutrient movement, with larger dung beetles moving more pan class="Chemical">nitrogen, pan class="Chemical">phosphorus, potassium, and carbon from baseline measurements when compared to smaller sized dung beetles. The presence of smaller sized dung beetles showed a significant positive effect on potassium and phosphorus transfer only. We provide the first experimental evidence that the body size of African dungs directly influences the type of macronutrients recycled and discuss the importance of dung beetle body size for maintaining soil fertility.
Authors: J Barlow; T A Gardner; I S Araujo; T C Avila-Pires; A B Bonaldo; J E Costa; M C Esposito; L V Ferreira; J Hawes; M I M Hernandez; M S Hoogmoed; R N Leite; N F Lo-Man-Hung; J R Malcolm; M B Martins; L A M Mestre; R Miranda-Santos; A L Nunes-Gutjahr; W L Overal; L Parry; S L Peters; M A Ribeiro-Junior; M N F da Silva; C da Silva Motta; C A Peres Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2007-11-14 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: Santiago Soliveres; Fons van der Plas; Peter Manning; Daniel Prati; Martin M Gossner; Swen C Renner; Fabian Alt; Hartmut Arndt; Vanessa Baumgartner; Julia Binkenstein; Klaus Birkhofer; Stefan Blaser; Nico Blüthgen; Steffen Boch; Stefan Böhm; Carmen Börschig; Francois Buscot; Tim Diekötter; Johannes Heinze; Norbert Hölzel; Kirsten Jung; Valentin H Klaus; Till Kleinebecker; Sandra Klemmer; Jochen Krauss; Markus Lange; E Kathryn Morris; Jörg Müller; Yvonne Oelmann; Jörg Overmann; Esther Pašalić; Matthias C Rillig; H Martin Schaefer; Michael Schloter; Barbara Schmitt; Ingo Schöning; Marion Schrumpf; Johannes Sikorski; Stephanie A Socher; Emily F Solly; Ilja Sonnemann; Elisabeth Sorkau; Juliane Steckel; Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter; Barbara Stempfhuber; Marco Tschapka; Manfred Türke; Paul C Venter; Christiane N Weiner; Wolfgang W Weisser; Michael Werner; Catrin Westphal; Wolfgang Wilcke; Volkmar Wolters; Tesfaye Wubet; Susanne Wurst; Markus Fischer; Eric Allan Journal: Nature Date: 2016-08-17 Impact factor: 49.962
Authors: Nico Eisenhauer; Holger Schielzeth; Andrew D Barnes; Kathryn Barry; Aletta Bonn; Ulrich Brose; Helge Bruelheide; Nina Buchmann; François Buscot; Anne Ebeling; Olga Ferlian; Grégoire T Freschet; Darren P Giling; Stephan Hättenschwiler; Helmut Hillebrand; Jes Hines; Forest Isbell; Eva Koller-France; Birgitta König-Ries; Hans de Kroon; Sebastian T Meyer; Alexandru Milcu; Jörg Müller; Charles A Nock; Jana S Petermann; Christiane Roscher; Christoph Scherber; Michael Scherer-Lorenzen; Bernhard Schmid; Stefan A Schnitzer; Andreas Schuldt; Teja Tscharntke; Manfred Türke; Nicole M van Dam; Fons van der Plas; Anja Vogel; Cameron Wagg; David A Wardle; Alexandra Weigelt; Wolfgang W Weisser; Christian Wirth; Malte Jochum Journal: Adv Ecol Res Date: 2019-07-23 Impact factor: 7.429
Authors: Patrick L Thompson; Forest Isbell; Michel Loreau; Mary I O'Connor; Andrew Gonzalez Journal: Proc Biol Sci Date: 2018-06-13 Impact factor: 5.349
Authors: Sandra Díaz; Andy Purvis; Johannes H C Cornelissen; Georgina M Mace; Michael J Donoghue; Robert M Ewers; Pedro Jordano; William D Pearse Journal: Ecol Evol Date: 2013-07-30 Impact factor: 2.912