Abstract
Agriculture is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with dairy and beef production accounting for nearly two-thirds of emissions. Several recent papers suggest that dung beetles may affect fluxes of GHGs from cattle farming. Here, we put these previous findings into context. Using Finland as an example, we assessed GHG emissions at three scales: the dung pat, pasture ecosystem, and whole lifecycle of milk or beef production. At the first two levels, dung beetles reduced GHG emissions by up to 7% and 12% respectively, mainly through large reductions in methane (CH4) emissions. However, at the lifecycle level, dung beetles accounted for only a 0.05–0.13% reduction of overall GHG emissions. This mismatch derives from the fact that in intensive production systems, only a limited fraction of all cow pats end up on pastures, offering limited scope for dung beetle mitigation of GHG fluxes. In contrast, we suggest that the effects of dung beetles may be accentuated in tropical countries, where more manure is left on pastures, and dung beetles remove and aerate dung faster, and that this is thus a key area for future research. These considerations give a new perspective on previous results perspective, and suggest that studies of biotic effects on GHG emissions from dung pats on a global scale are a priority for current research.
Highlights
Agriculture is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with dairy and beef production accounting for nearly two-thirds of emissions
One way of reducing GHG emissions from cattle farming for milk and beef is to graze the livestock on open grassland, rather than using intensive grain fed systems[4]
Dung beetles may help mitigate these effects through the aeration and burial of dung pats[7]
Summary
Agriculture is one of the largest anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), with dairy and beef production accounting for nearly two-thirds of emissions. Dung beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae, Aphodiinae, Geotrupidae) are some of the most important invertebrate contributors to dung decomposition in both temperate and tropical agricultural grasslands[9,10,11,12,13] As such, they may help mitigate GHG emissions and aid carbon sequestration through removing dung deposited on the pastures, increasing grass growth and fertilization[14]. It has recently been shown that dung beetles have the potential to reduce GHG emissions from dung pats deposited on pastures[7,15] How these effects compare to other GHG sources in livestock farming remains unknown, as the impact of dung beetles has not been included in more comprehensive lifecycle assessments of meat and dairy products. We adopt previously measured effects at the level www.nature.com/scientificreports/
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