Frank, Kevin ; Krell, Frank-Thorsten ; Slade, Eleanor M. ; Raine, Elizabeth H. ; Chiew, Li Yuen ; Schmitt, Thomas ; Vairappan, Charles S. ; Walter, Philippe ; Blüthgen, Nico (2018)
Global dung webs: high trophic generalism of dung beetles along the latitudinal diversity gradient.
In: Ecology letters, 21 (8)
doi: 10.1111/ele.13095
Artikel, Bibliographie
Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)
At the global scale, species diversity is known to strongly increase towards the equator for most taxa. According to theory, a higher resource specificity of consumers facilitates the coexistence of a larger number of species and has been suggested as an explanation for the latitudinal diversity gradient. However, only few studies support the predicted increase in specialisation or even showed opposite results. Surprisingly, analyses for detritivores are still missing. Therefore, we performed an analysis on the degree of trophic specialisation of dung beetles. We summarised 45 studies, covering the resource preferences of a total of 994503 individuals, to calculate the dung specificity in each study region. Our results highlighted a significant (4.3-fold) increase in the diversity of beetles attracted to vertebrate dung towards the equator. However, their resource specificity was low, unrelated to diversity and revealed a highly generalistic use of dung resources that remained similar along the latitudinal gradient.
| Typ des Eintrags: | Artikel |
|---|---|
| Erschienen: | 2018 |
| Autor(en): | Frank, Kevin ; Krell, Frank-Thorsten ; Slade, Eleanor M. ; Raine, Elizabeth H. ; Chiew, Li Yuen ; Schmitt, Thomas ; Vairappan, Charles S. ; Walter, Philippe ; Blüthgen, Nico |
| Art des Eintrags: | Bibliographie |
| Titel: | Global dung webs: high trophic generalism of dung beetles along the latitudinal diversity gradient. |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Publikationsjahr: | August 2018 |
| Titel der Zeitschrift, Zeitung oder Schriftenreihe: | Ecology letters |
| Jahrgang/Volume einer Zeitschrift: | 21 |
| (Heft-)Nummer: | 8 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/ele.13095 |
| Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract): | At the global scale, species diversity is known to strongly increase towards the equator for most taxa. According to theory, a higher resource specificity of consumers facilitates the coexistence of a larger number of species and has been suggested as an explanation for the latitudinal diversity gradient. However, only few studies support the predicted increase in specialisation or even showed opposite results. Surprisingly, analyses for detritivores are still missing. Therefore, we performed an analysis on the degree of trophic specialisation of dung beetles. We summarised 45 studies, covering the resource preferences of a total of 994503 individuals, to calculate the dung specificity in each study region. Our results highlighted a significant (4.3-fold) increase in the diversity of beetles attracted to vertebrate dung towards the equator. However, their resource specificity was low, unrelated to diversity and revealed a highly generalistic use of dung resources that remained similar along the latitudinal gradient. |
| ID-Nummer: | pmid:29938888 |
| Fachbereich(e)/-gebiet(e): | 10 Fachbereich Biologie 10 Fachbereich Biologie > Ecological Networks |
| Hinterlegungsdatum: | 03 Jul 2018 10:22 |
| Letzte Änderung: | 15 Apr 2019 09:44 |
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