Dung beetles help keep ecosystems healthy - Frontiers for young minds

Dung beetles primarily use dung of mammals for feeding and nesting thereby playing a huge role in nutrient cycling. They also aid in seed dispersal, reducing livestock parasites, promoting plant growth, benefiting the health, and functioning of both natural and human-modified ecosystems. Recent studies have shown that dung beetles can also be used for biodiversity monitoring and exploring ecosystem function.

In our latest publication for Frontiers for Young Minds, we conveyed the importance of dung beetles for the health of ecosystems by explaining their basic ecology, behaviour and focussed on how networks of complex interactions are present between dung beetles and mammals and the implications of these interactions being affected.

For example, a study we included showed that if a site is heavily disturbed, there were simpler networks, with fewer dung beetle species and fewer interactions between beetles and mammals. This suggests that dung beetle species disappearing from our forests may be linked to mammals disappearing as well. Another example that was used showed that dung beetles preferred organic farms over conventional farms that use artificial fertilisers and insecticide. Both examples suggest that ecosystem health can be determined by studying dung beetles.

TL; DR: Dung beetles keep ecosystems healthy because they: (i) directly aid in the functioning of many ecosystem services and can (ii) serve as a useful bioindicator which are utilised to assess environmental health and biogeographic changes of the natural ecosystem in the environment.

This paper was written for 14-17 year old kids and was reviewed by them as part of Frontiers for Young Mind’s vision to make cutting-edge science discoveries more accessible and digestible to younger audiences. Link https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2021.583675

Contributors

Paul Manning, Ong Xin Rui and Eleanor Slade