Abstract
The seasonal occurrence of species and timing of key events in their life (phenology) affects the ecology and evolution of every species, population, and species community (SC) on Earth. Shifting phenologies and mismatches between species may affect range limits and lead to extinctions and biodiversity loss, which are especially concerning in ecologically and economically important SCs like coprophilous beetles. This study provides phenological data for many species of coprophilous beetles from the Midwestern region of the US, includes the often-missing winter months, and compares the seasonal and successional differences between the “relocator” and “dweller” guilds. Beetles were sampled biweekly throughout the year from a 3.8 ha Farm in Adrian, SE-Michigan using 15 pitfall traps baited with cow manure. Samples were collected after 48 h and again after 72 h exposure time. Over the entire year, I caught 6069 specimens from 24 species of Scarabaeoidea and 13 species of Hydrophilidae. The ROSARIO null model for continuous temporal data suggested a significant seasonal overlap of the SC (p < 0.0001) and a cluster analysis based on Pianka’s niche overlap index identified five clusters at a minimum overlap of 55 % falling into three major phenological guilds. “Relocators” (6 Scarabaeinae, 2 Aphodiinae species) overlapped on average by 48.4 %, whereas “dwellers” (9 Aphodiinae, 10 Hydrophilidae species) overlapped by 36.0 % (Mann-Whitney test, p = 0.055). Small Hydrophilidae dwellers overlapped by 30.9 % whereas large hydrophilid dwellers overlapped by 96.9 %. Individual phenological patterns were compared to other sites in North America and Europe and predictions about geographical and phenological changes due to the man-made climate crisis and habitat loss and fragmentation are discussed. Differences between the seasonal overlaps of “relocators” and “dwellers” as well as small and large Onthophagus relocators and Hydrophilidae dwellers are suggesting profound ecological differences between the guilds and sub-guilds.
Highlights
All organisms living outside the inner tropics experience regular and predictable seasonal climatic fluctuations over the time course of a year (Smith and Smith, 2001)
Abundances showed an early peak in mid-April, while biomass was gradually rising toward the summer peak
The present study provides quantitative details about the seasonal patterns of a diverse coprophilous beetle community from Southern Michigan including the winter months
Summary
All organisms living outside the inner tropics (approx. >± 15◦ latitude) experience regular and predictable seasonal climatic fluctuations over the time course of a year (Smith and Smith, 2001). Shifting phenologies may affect species’ range limits (Chen et al, 2011), increase competition (Carter and Rudolf, 2019) and may disrupt other direct and indirect interactions (Morente-López et al, 2018), leading to species extinctions (Rudolf, 2019) and may reduce biodiversity (Franco-Cisterna et al, 2020) causing substantial shifts in SCs. Due to the profound effects of phenological shifts and mismatches between species (Kharouba et al, 2018; Renner and Zohner, 2018; Damien and Tougeron, 2019), it is important to predict how the phenology of the species within a SC might shift under the influence of changing weather patterns or introduced invasive species (van den Heuvel et al, 2013; Wolkovich and Cleland, 2014; Colautti et al, 2017; Chmura et al, 2019). This is only possible, if the current phenologies of each species (or at least of key species) in a SC are known over their present geographical and ecological ranges
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