From green to grey: unravelling the role of urbanization on diversity of dung beetles in Amazonian landscapes

Abstract

Abstract The Brazilian Amazon has undergone an intense process of urbanization responsible for changes in the land use and land cover patterns in the last decades. Therefore, understanding the impacts resulting from the urbanization of Amazon become urgent, both to preserve biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions and services, since Amazon region comprise a key ecosystem regarding biodiversity and ecological dynamics. We studied, for the first time, the impact of urbanization on dung beetles, a recognized bioindicator group, in Amazonian landscapes. For this, we assessed the dung beetle taxonomic and functional responses along a preserved-rural-urban habitat gradient in an Amazonian city, and how landscape predictors affect dung beetle diversity. We found a consistent shift in species composition and reduction of both taxonomic and functional diversity from forest patches located outside the city towards those located in the city core. In addition, forest cover was the main driver of dung beetle responses at the landscape scale, where the increase of forest cover positively affected dung beetle diversity. Our results provide evidence that urbanization negatively impacts the dung beetle taxonomic and functional diversity in Amazonian cities, and reinforce the importance of maintaining forest cover to conserve dung beetles in tropical forests. Finally, the development of sustainable initiatives for the conservation of biodiversity in urban landscapes, such as public policies aimed at the maintenance of urban forest fragments, can help to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem processes within cities and to mitigate the urbanization impacts.