Dung beetles is a group of coprophagous beetles in the family Scarabaeidae. Dung beetles have an important function by improving nutrient circulation and biological control of parasites. Dung is a short-lived resource, making dung beetles tied to habitats continuously grazed. Decline in pasture combined with shorter grazing seasons has resulted in a decrease in available dung. Other reasons can be the use of chemicals to control internal parasites on the grazing animals. This has contributed to the fact that half of the dung beetles in Sweden are endangered. The aim of the present study was to analyze data on dung beetles from the County Administration Board in Östergötland and see if species communities have changed between 2001-2019. In addition, the effect of sand as soil type was studied by comparing the species richness between pastures with and without sand. Analysis whether there was any variation among species richness and species communities depending of grazing animals was also performed. Results showed that the number of species had increased over time and that changes in species communities had occurred. Pastures with sand had more species, however, the amount of sand in the nearest surroundings was of less importance. Dung beetles were found to have a preference when choosing dung-type. Pastures with dung from multiple species of grazing animals were found having the highest species richness. Studies on this would clarify even further what seems to favor dung beetles, this could then be applied to other areas to counteract the loss of species.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第21604号 / 理博第4511号 / 新制||理||1647(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科生物科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 中野 隆文, 教授 曽田 貞滋, 教授 中務 真人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

Thesis (M.Sc. (Geography)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020 / Wetland vegetation provides a variety of goods and services such as carbon sequestration, flood control, climate regulation, filtering contamination, improve and maintain water quality, ecological functioning. However, changes in land cover and uses, overgrazing and environmental changes have resulted in the transformation of the wetland ecosystem. So far, a lot of focus has been biased towards large wetlands neglecting wetlands at a local scale. Smaller wetlands continue to receive massive degradation by the surrounding communities.Therefore, this study seeks to assess and map wetland vegetation as an indicator of ecological productivity on a small scale. The Sentinel-2 MSI image was used to map wetland plant species diversity and above-ground biomass (AGB). Four key diversity indices; the Shannon Wiener (H), Simpson (D), Pielou (J), and Species richness (S) were used to measure species diversity. A multilinear regression technique was applied to establish the relationship between remotely sensed data and diversity indices and AGB. The results indicated that Simpson (D) has a high relationship with combined vegetation indices and spectral band, yielding the highest accuracy when compared to other diversity indices. For example, an R² of 0.75, and the RMSE of 0.08 and AIC of -191.6 were observed. Further, vegetation AGB was estimated with high accuracy of an R² of 0.65, the RMSE 29.02, and AIC of 280.21. These results indicate that Maungani wetland has high species abundance largely dominated by one species (Cyperus latifidius) and highly productive. The findings of this work underscore the relevance of remotely sensed to estimate and monitor wetland plant species diversity with high accuracy.

Biodiversity has been heavily impacted by anthropogenic landscape changes associated with natural resource extraction. Terrestrial mammals, which disproportionately maintain ecosystem functions, are among the species most affected by anthropogenic landscape changes. In turn, it is important that we incorporate mammal conservation into natural resource extraction to mitigate biodiversity change, for which we must better understand the dynamics of mammal communities. I used data from motion-activated camera traps deployed in the northwest Nearctic to investigate two aspects of mammal communities: how the environment shapes fine-scale mammal diversity and how mammalian predator species coexist. In my first study, I compared how well natural and anthropogenic landscape features explain fine-scale mammal diversity within and between six variably industrialized landscapes. I found that anthropogenic landscape features explain fine-scale mammal diversity better than natural features in heavily industrialized landscapes, where they may increase or decrease diversity. In my second study, I examined whether prey partitioning facilitates the coexistence of mammalian predator species in an industrialized boreal landscape. My findings suggest that sympatric predator species only partially partition prey, as some predator species had identical prey associations. Strikingly, though, I also found that all predators were positively associated with white-tailed deer, an invasive prey species made abundant by industrial landscape changes. Together, these findings reveal that industrial landscape changes significantly alter both the spatial distributions and predator–prey dynamics of mammal communities. This work can inform conservation and restoration strategies for slowing biodiversity change. / Graduate

A large database now exists for tardigrades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) consisting of 780 samples, 15,618 specimens, and 80 species including 14 new to science. We found 43 species of tardigrades in 150 soil/leaf litter samples. We calculated the Chao 1 species richness estimate with the species accumulation curve for the GSMNP and confirmed that our species list is virtually complete. Compared with soil data from mt. Fuji, Japan, estimated species richness in GSMNP was significantly higher. In our comparison of previous studies of soil/leaf litter tardigrades in other geographic areas, only the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan reported a higher number of species (47) than the GSMNP. Species richness estimators are valuable tools for comparing diversity in different habitats, even when sampling effort varies between studies.

A large database now exists for tardigrades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) consisting of 780 samples, 15,618 specimens, and 80 species including 14 new to science. We found 43 species of tardigrades in 150 soil/leaf litter samples. We calculated the Chao 1 species richness estimate with the species accumulation curve for the GSMNP and confirmed that our species list is virtually complete. Compared with soil data from mt. Fuji, Japan, estimated species richness in GSMNP was significantly higher. In our comparison of previous studies of soil/leaf litter tardigrades in other geographic areas, only the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan reported a higher number of species (47) than the GSMNP. Species richness estimators are valuable tools for comparing diversity in different habitats, even when sampling effort varies between studies.

Nitrogen enrichment of plant communities is known to have big impact on declines in plant diversity and increase of biomass production. Though nitrogen is an important nutrient in the life cycle of a plant it is also problematic when the availability of nitrogen is continually high. When enrichment of nitrogen is continual, the increase in biomass and height from competitive plant species result in shading, which contribute to diversity loss in plant communities. Some nitrogen-favoured plants are long-lived and have the possibility to store seed banks in the ground until conditions are more favourable. Little is known about what role historic fertilization have on plant communities that are being re-fertilized. The aim with this study was to re-fertilize vegetation plots and compare those with vegetation plots that have not been fertilized before. The study site was vegetation plots on a meadow in Strycksele, Västerbotten, Sweden. Some plots had been fertilized from year 1996 until 2000 and scientific studies with re-fertilization started in 2019 and is ongoing. The vegetation response from re-fertilization and newly fertilization was assessed by investigating species diversity and biomass. The results showed no significant difference between re-fertilized and newly fertilized plots in either species diversity or biomass, but there was significant higher biomass in newly fertilized plots than control plots which had not been fertilized 2019-2021. For future studies there would be of high interest to look at potential differences in functional group composition in plant communities that are being re-fertilized compared to newly fertilized plant communities.

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