Dung Beetles of the Western Palaearctic

Tanja Milotic1, Christophe Baltzinger2, Carsten Eichberg3, Amy Eycott4, Marco Heurich5, Jörg Müller5, Jorge Noriega6, Rosa Menendez7, Jutta Stadler8, Réka Ádám9, Tessa Bargmann4, Isabelle Bilger2, Jörn Buse10, Joaquin Calatayud11, Constantin Ciubuc12, Gergely Boros13, Pierre Jay-Robert14, Märt Kruus15, Enno Merivee16, Geoffrey Miessen17, Anne Must16, Elham Ardali18, Elena Preda12, Iraj Rahimi19, Dirk Rohwedder20, Eleanor Slade21, László Somay22, Pejman Tahmasebi19, Stefano Ziani23, Dimitri Brosens1, Peter Desmet1, Maurice Hoffmann1

1 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Kliniekstraat 25, 1070, Brussels, Belgium; 2 IRSTEA, Domaine des Barres, 45290, Nogent-sur-Vernisson, France; 3 Universität Trier, Behringstr. 21, Trier, Germany; 4 University of Bergen, PO box 7803, 5020, Bergen, Norway; 5 Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481, Grafenau, Germany; 6 CSIC, C/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006, Madrid, Spain; 7 Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, Lancaster; 8 UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06120, Halle/Saale, Germany; 9 MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u. 2-4, 2163, Vácrátót, Hungary; 10 University Koblenz-Landau, Fortstr. 7, 76829, Landau, Germany; 11 Universidad de Alcalá, 28871, Alcalá de Henares, Spain; 12 University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei 91-95, 050095, Bucharest, Romania; 13 MTA Centre for Ecological Research, Alkotmány u. 2-4., 2163, Vácrátót, Hungary; 14 University of Montpellier, CEFE UMR 5175, 34199, Montpellier, France; 15 Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi Street 1, 51014, , Estonia; 16 Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi Street 1, 51014, Tartu, Estonia; 17 Rue Hazinelle, 6/41, 4000, Liège, Belgium; 18 Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000, Gent, Belgium; 19 Shahrekord University, Pobox 115, Shahrekord, Iran (islamic Republic Of); 20 Zoological research museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany; 21 University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, United Kingdom; 22 MTA centre for ecological research, Alkotmány u. 2-4, 2163, Vácrátót, Hungary; 23 GEOLAB, Via Case di Dozza, 22, 40026, Imola, Italy

Corresponding author(s): Tanja Milotic (tanja.milotic@inbo.be)Christophe BaltzingerCarsten EichbergAmy EycottMarco HeurichJörg MüllerJorge NoriegaRosa MenendezJutta StadlerRéka ÁdámTessa BargmannIsabelle BilgerJörn BuseJoaquin CalatayudConstantin CiubucGergely BorosPierre Jay-RobertMärt KruusEnno MeriveeGeoffrey MiessenAnne MustElham ArdaliElena PredaIraj RahimiDirk RohwedderEleanor SladeLászló SomayPejman TahmasebiStefano ZianiDimitri Brosens (dimitri.brosens@inbo.be)Peter Desmet (peter.desmet@inbo.be)Maurice Hoffmann

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Milotic T, Baltzinger C, Eichberg C, Eycott A, Heurich M, Müller J, Noriega J, Menendez R, Stadler J, Ádám R, Bargmann T, Bilger I, Buse J, Calatayud J, Ciubuc C, Boros G, Jay-Robert P, Kruus M, Merivee E, Miessen G, Must A, Ardali E, Preda E, Rahimi I, Rohwedder D, Slade E, Somay L, Tahmasebi P, Ziani S, Brosens D, Desmet P, Hoffmann M (2017): Dung Beetles of the Western Palaearctic. v1.3. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Samplingevent. https://doi.org/10.15468/zbazdy https://doi.org/10.15468/zbazdy

Abstract

The dataset aggregates the results from a pan-European multi-site experiment, financially supported by the ALTER-Net consortium, Europe’s Ecosystem Research Network. In this multi-site experiment, the impact of dung beetle assemblages on dung decomposition and secondary seed dispersal was studied.
Working at a multi-site level allowed us to study the link between ecosystem functions of dung removal and secondary seed dispersal, and dung beetle diversity and abundance in a broad range of bioclimatic zones. Therefore, grazed grasslands throughout the Western Palaearctic zone were included in the experiment. By experimentally manipulating the access of certain dung beetle functional groups to the experimental units, we were able to estimate the value of each functional group for ecosystem functioning and assess the impact of predicted climate change on these processes through the changes it induces in dung beetle assemblage composition.
During the experiments, the removal of different types of dung and seeds were measured and the dung beetle assemblage composition was determined using different types of dung as bait. The experiments took place between 2013 and 2016, at 17 study sites in 10 countries within the Western Palaearctic realm. The dung beetle occurrence data set contains all dung beetle specimens sampled during the 4-week experimental periods at each sampling site.
To allow anyone to use this dataset, we have released the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). We would appreciate however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.inbo.be/en/norms-for-data-use) and provide a link to the original dataset (https://doi.org/10.15468/zbazdy) whenever possible. If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always interested to know how you have used or visualized the data, or to provide more information, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata, opendata@inbo.be or https://twitter.com/LifeWatchINBO.

Keywords: Samplingevent, dung beetles, Western Palaearctic, ecology, multi-site experiment

Project details

Project title: MSE-III The impact of dung beetle assemblages on dung and seed dispersal
Personnel: Tanja Milotic
Funding: The project was financially supported by the ALTER-Net consortium, Europe’s Ecosystem Research Network within their multi-site research programme (MSE III call).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: The multi-site experiment was carried out on 17 study sites covering 10 countries in the Western Palaearctic realm. Each study site was assigned to a biogeographic region according to Udvardy (1975). The experiment was replicated on a spatial scale by selecting study sites within the same biogeographic region. All study areas consisted of natural grasslands which had been grazed by domestic and/or wild herbivores for at least a couple of years prior to the experiment.
Design description: Dung beetles can be classified into functional groups according to their dung manipulation and nesting methods. 'Dwellers' feed and breed in superficial dung layers and do not move dung. In contrast, 'tunnelers' transport dung in a vertical direction by digging vertical shafts underneath dung pats, while 'rollers' make dung balls, roll them in a horizontal movement before burying them shallowly.
Another classification was made according to the size of the beetles: beetles with a body width larger than 1 cm were classified as 'large', while all smaller species were considered as 'small'. As all dweller species were classified as small, we used five groups in the experiments: dwellers, small tunnelers, large tunnelers, small rollers and large rollers.
In this multi-site project we aimed to assess dung removal and secondary seed dispersal by each of these functional groups and size classes. Therefore, different experimental units were build that prevented the dung removing action of different combinations of functional groups and size classes. Experimental units consisted of different combinations of ground screens preventing the digging of tunnelers and/or vertical wall preventing dung removal by rollers. By using either fine mesh (mesh size: 1 mm * 1 mm) or large mesh (mesh size 1 cm * 1 cm) the activity of respectively all size classes and large beetles was prevented. During a 4-week period, dung removal and secondary seed removal by dung beetles was assessed in these experimental units. According to the herbivore species grazing in close vicinity of the study areas different dung types were used (cattle, horse, sheep, goat or red deer).
Simultaneously, dung beetle assemblages were sampled by using pitfalls baited with the same dung types used in the experiments. Sampling units were emptied weekly. In order to relate dung beetle abundance and richness with dung quality, the original dung baits were re-used after emptying the pitfalls.

Data published through GBIF: http://data.inbo.be/ipt/resource?r=dbwp-events

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: We defined 'dung beetles' as species of the superfamily Scarabaeoidea that generally feed on dung in both the larval and adult phase. Some species of other beetle families such as Hydrophilidae and Staphylinidae are commonly found in dung as well and could be considered as dung beetles as well (Hanski, Cambefort 1991). Nevertheless, they are not coprophagous during their entire life cycle (Finn et al. 1999) and they do not contribute to lateral or vertical dung transport which was one of the major research questions in our study. Therefore, dung beetles were strictly defined as the coprophagous species in the Geotrupidae and Scarabaeidae families.
Taxonomic ranks
Order: Coleoptera
Superfamily: Scarabaeoidea
Family: Scarabaeidae, Geotrupidae
Common names: beetles

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The multi-site experiment was carried out on 17 study sites covering 10 countries in the Western Palaearctic realm. All study areas consisted of natural grasslands which had been grazed by domestic and/or wild herbivores for at least a couple of years prior to the experiment.
Coordinates: 25°0'0''N and 70°0'0''N Latitude; 15°0'0''W and 65°0'0''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: September 1, 2013 - July 7, 2016

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Dung beetle specimens were extracted from the samples and identified at species level.
- . 	For each species, the number of individuals was counted per sampling unit (pitfall) with indication of sampling date, used dung bait and geographic location.
Study extent description: The multi-site experiment was carried out on 17 study sites covering 10 countries (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Norway, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom). Each study site was assigned to a biogeographic region according to Udvardy (1975). When possible, the experiment was replicated on a spatial scale by selecting study sites within the same biogeographic region, and on a temporal scale by replicating the experiment in different seasons and/or years. All study areas consisted of natural grasslands which had been grazed by domestic and/or wild herbivores for at least a couple of years prior to the experiment.
Sampling description: During the experiments, the dung beetle community was sampled in each study area. In 2013 and 2014, two main types of pitfall traps were used in order to achieve a complete view of dung beetle diversity and abundance. The first trap type consisted of one large container (1 l) with a 11 cm wide opening at the top, and covered with hexagonal chicken wire (with mesh diameter of 25 mm) and dung as bait (as described in Larsen, Forsyth (2005)). In sampling campaigns in 2013 and 2014, approximately 100 g of dung packed in a nylon bag was put on top of the chicken wire (sampling protocol "T1" in the dataset), while in 2015 the traps were baited with a larger amount of unwrapped dung (ca. 500 g) put directly on the chicken wire (sampling protocol "T1L").
The second trap type consisted of five smaller containers (0.2 l) with a 7 cm wide opening at the top, and surrounding a central dung pile of approximately 300 g (as in D'hondt et al. (2008), sampling protocol "T5"). In all trap types containers were dug into the soil with the upper rim levelled with the soil surface. Containers were filled with a saturated salt-water solution (ca. 365 g l-1 NaCl with some drops of unscented detergent). All pitfall traps were set up randomly between the experimental units with six replicates per dung type used in the dung removal experiment. Traps were put in operation one week after the start of the dung removal and seed dispersal experiments in order to avoid interference with the initial beetle colonization phase of the experiment. Traps were emptied weekly and sampling stopped after one month, equalling three sampling occasions per experimental period.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Dung Beetles of the Western Palaearctic
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://data.inbo.be/ipt/archive.do?r=dbwp-events
Publication date of data: 2017-10-23
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2017-06-14
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
D'hondt, B., Bossuyt, B., Hoffmann, M. & Bonte, D. (2008) Dung beetles as secondary seed dispersers in a temperate grassland. Basic and Applied Ecology, 9, 542-549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2007.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2007.11.002
Finn, J.A., Gittings, T. & Giller, P.S. (1999) Spatial and temporal variation in species composition of dung beetle assemblages in southern Ireland. Ecological Entomology, 24, 24-36. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2311.1999.00169.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2311.1999.00169.x
Hanski, I. & Cambefort, Y. (1991) Dung beetle ecology. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
Larsen, T.H. & Forsyth, A. (2005) Trap spacing and transect design for dung beetle biodiversity studies. Biotropica, 37, 322-325. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2005.00042.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2005.00042.x
Udvardy, M.D.F. (1975) A classification of the biogeographical provinces of the world. IUCN Occasional paper 18,  World Conservation Union. Morges, Switzerland.