Biodiversity impacts of land use simplification: a case study of dung beetles in a landscape of the Brazilian Atlantic forest

Unplanned and invasive use of natural resources can have irreversible implications for the environment. Appropriate strategies for adequate management could have utmost importance for the conservation of biodiversity. Environments that harbor a huge structural complexity, such as agroforestry systems, even the simplest ones, may host a high species diversity and may therefore ensure the provision of important ecological services. To examine the effect of vegetation structure loss by land use simplification on biodiversity, we evaluate dung beetle (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) diversity in different land uses, considering: Brazilian Atlantic Forest, cacao-rubber agroforestry, and rubber monoculture. We found a decreasing gradient of dung beetle diversity from forest to monoculture, as cacao-rubber agroforestry maintaining an intermediate level of dung beetle diversity that is lower than that of the native forest but significantly higher than rubber monoculture. Species composition is rather similar when comparing forest and agroforestry, whereas monoculture holds a different assemblage. Although monoculture farming is still encouraged by the agribusiness market, our results support the idea that agroforestry is a reasonable option to be considered and adapted to compensate the deleterious effects of agriculture intensification on dung beetle diversity. We suggest that such land use would be the best choice to ensure dung beetle diversity maintenance in agricultural landscapes.