Movement and population size of two dung beetle species in an Andean agricultural landscape dominated by sun-grown coffee

Understanding how species use and persist in agricultural areas is useful for planning conservation efforts at the landscape scale. Information at the population level is scarce, even for organisms, such as dung beetles, that are traditionally used in biodiversity studies to evaluate the effects of anthropic disturbance. Based on multiple mark–recapture events, the description of movement patterns and three population parameters (population size, survival and recruitment) were compared for two dung beetle species (Dichotomius cf. alyattes and Oxysternon conspicillatum) in a fragmented Andean landscape dominated by sun-grown coffee crops. Interspecific differences were detected in movement patterns and in the minimum distance moved across the landscape, with the latter associated with wing loading and species habitat preferences. D. cf. alyattes was captured in both the forest and in sun-grown coffee plots, but tended to limit its movement to patches of forest, while O. conspicillatum covered large distances in short periods of time across the sun-grown coffee crops (ca. 1.7 km/24 h). The population of each species increased during the months of greatest precipitation, prior to the recruitment of new beetles. Given their great capacity for movement, habitat preference and their differential use of the landscape, the species studied can be used as models to evaluate the functional connectivity of Andean landscapes under high anthropic demand. Our results support the idea of the differential response of species to land-use changes, an aspect that should be considered for effective biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning in human-dominated landscapes. © 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland.