Effect of habitat transformation from grassland to Acacia mangium plantation on dung beetle assemblage in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Clean Development Mechanism afforestation often involves the creation of fast growing tree plantations on non-forest lands. To estimate the possible impacts of afforestation on the biodiversity of local species, we compared the diversity of dung beetles collected using baited pitfall traps placed in grasslands, plantations of Acacia mangium, and intact natural forests in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The species richness in plantations was higher than that on grasslands but lower than that in intact natural forests. Ordination analysis revealed that the structures of beetle assemblages in plantations were intermediate between intact natural forests and grasslands. However, the indicator species for the intact natural forests were never or rarely seen in the plantations. These results suggest that afforestation increases the local native diversity of dung beetles but that plantations are not readily colonized by the indicators of intact natural forests. Conversely, it is suggested that afforestation decreases the abundances of two grassland specialists.