Functional responses to anthropogenic disturbance and the importance of selected traits a study case using dung beetles Scarabaeoidea Scarabaeinae

GIMENEZ GÓMEZ VICTORIA C; VERDÚ, JOSÉ R.; CASANOVES, FERNANDO; ZURITA GUSTAVO ANDRÉS

Alicante

Congreso; XX Congreso Ibérico de Entomología; 2023

Functional diversity has been defined as the value, range, distribution, and relative abundance of the functional traits of individuals that belong to an ecosystem. Therefore, the functional response of organisms to environmental disturbances depends largely on their functional traits. We evaluated dung beetle functional diversity associated with the Atlantic Forest replacement using a matrix with 25 functional traits (10 morphological, four ethological, and 11 physiological). We compared functional diversity among native forests and disturbed habitats, with a multi and single-trait approach. Contrary to previous studies, habitats with higher disturbance (open pasture) exhibited higher functional diversity compared to others land uses, which could be explained by the inclusion of physiological response traits; species of open disturbed habitats showed extreme values of such traits. However, the higher functional diversity in the most disturbed habitat may not be correlated to ecosystem functioning since physiological traits do not have a significant contribution to ecosystem functioning compared to ethological and morphological traits. The inclusion of several traits that represent not only the ecology and morphology of species but also their physiology, generates different results to those observed in previous functional studies. Therefore, we propose that functional traits must (1) be carefully chosen according to their biological and functional basis; (2) represent species ecology and physiology; and (3) include both effect and response traits. In addition, we consider as extremely relevant to include a multi and single-trait approach in functional diversity studies and evaluate the ecosystem process empirically rather than theoretically. A combination of all these considerations will provide a more realistic and complete overview of functional diversity patterns and the potential consequences of human disturbance on ecosystem functioning. Financial support was provided by the projects PID2019-105418RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación – Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) and TED2021-130304B-I00 (Unión Europea NextGenerationEU/PRTR).