| My results show that dung
beetles are strongly habitat specific, responding to differences in vegetation
and degree of disturbance. This makes them particularly useful for understanding
patterns of diversity at various spatial scales. In Peru, I have documented
the most diverse site recorded for dung beetles in the world with 136
species. In this site, I have sampled many nearby habitats, including
terra firme, floodplain, bamboo, secondary forest, grassy clearing, palm
swamp, and river beach, showing that each contains a distinctive assemblage
of dung beetles with very high Beta diversity. In conjunction with Adrian
Forsyth and colleagues from the Smithsonian, we have sampled many sites
in southeast Peru and adjacent areas of Bolivia. We are gathering data
from other sites in Central and South America and scaling the comparison
from the local to the regional and continental level. Initial results
show that the majority of dung beetle diversity is quite localized, while
a few species are very widely distributed. These results fit into a larger
study in which we will be investigating how the ecological requirements
of individual species structure distribution and diversity patterns. |
