Quantifying responses of dung beetle assemblages to cattle grazing removal over a short-term in introduced Brazilian pastures

Pasture management techniques may affect the biodiversity of insects beneficial to pastures, such as dung beetles. Cattle grazing removal over a short-term is widely used in introduced Brazilian pastures. However, the impact of this management on dung beetles is still unknown. This study evaluated the taxonomic (species richness, abundance, biomass, species composition, Shannon, and Simpson indexes) and functional (functional richness FRic, functional dispersion FDis, functional evenness FEve, and community-weighted means of trait values CWMs) dung beetle assemblages response to cattle grazing removal over a short-in introduced pastures. We sampled dung beetles, with pitfall traps baited with cattle dung and carrion, simultaneously in pastures with constant cattle grazing (control), and one, three, and five months after cattle grazing removal in Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Taxonomic metrics and FRic, FDis, and FEve did not differ among control and pasture treatments. We found that pastures with one month of cattle removal maintain the same CWM coprophagous diet from the control, and higher CWM biomass in relation to control. Although cattle grazing removal, at least over the short-term, does not cause a negative impact on dung beetle taxonomic metrics and functional diversity indexes, two important traits associated to dung removal are negatively affected after three months of cattle removal. Thus, we suggest that one month of cattle removal to grazing rotational management in introduced Brazilian pastures can be a useful strategy to, besides conserving the grass, also conserving dung beetle diversity, and consequently the ecological functions performed by them.