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Research article2019Peer reviewedOpen access

Local management actions override farming systems in determining dung beetle species richness, abundance and biomass and associated ecosystem services

Piccini, Irene; Palestrini, Claudia; Rolando, Antonio; Roslin, Tomas

Abstract

Organic farming systems have been proposed to support higher biodiversity than conventional ones, and higher diversity might make ecosystems more resilient against environmental change. We investigated how dung beetle communities and associated ecological functions (dung removal) vary at two hierarchical levels among Swedish dairy farms: between farming systems (organic vs. conventional) and among farms within farming systems. At the level of farming systems, we detected no differences in dung beetle species richness, abundance or diversity. The total biomass of beetles was slightly higher on conventional farms than on organic ones, but this difference did not correspond to a difference in dung-system functioning. However, at the farm level, we found significant differences in species richness, abundance and total biomass, reflected in significantly different provisioning of ecological functions among farms. Our results identify the importance of farm-specific variation in dung beetle assemblages for ecosystem functioning. Local decisions made by farmers may thereby override general differences among farming systems. Thus, policies aimed at promoting fine-scale management actions are an important supplement to general rules for certification under different farming systems. The current results are likely context-dependent, as based on efficient uptake and substantial environmental awareness among Swedish dairy farmers. (C) 2019 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Dung beetle community; Community attributes; Ecological functions; Farming systems; Organic and conventional farms; Dung removal

Published in

Basic and Applied Ecology
2019, Volume: 41, pages: 13-21
Publisher: ELSEVIER GMBH

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Ecology

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2019.09.001

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/103049