Journal of Rangeland

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Change in the soil carbon content of semi-steppe rangelands driven by collective functions of dung beetles was investigated using a completely randomized design. Two mesh sizes of 1cm and 1mm were used to exclude different functional groups of dung beetle related to sheep and cattle dung. The functional groups attributed as large and small tunellers (T, t), large and small rollers (R,r) and dwellers (D) and combined into several treatments numbered as 1-presence of all beetles (D+T+t+R+r+),  2- presence of dwellers and tunellers (D+T+t+R-r-), 3- absence of rollers, presence of dwellers and small tunellers and rollers (D+T+t+R-r+), 4- absence of large roller, presence of dwellers, absence of large tunellers and presence of small tunellers (D+T-t+R+r+), 5- presence of small and large rollers, presence of dwellers (D+T-t+R-r-), 6- presence of dwellers, absence of large tunellers and small and large rollers (D+T-t+R-r+) also 0 presence of beetle as a control (D-T-t-R-r-). Then, different soil properties under the soil treatments including carbon (C) and nitrogen content (N), soil bulk density, pH, EC, sulfate of the treatments measured and compared among dung beetles functional groups. The results showed that the highest amounts of N and C were related to the second treatment where all groups were present and increased 1.96 % and 0.17 % for C and N compared to control respectively in the case of cattle dung. For sheep dung, the highest amount of C and N were observed for presence of small and large rollers, presence of dwellers (D+T-t+R-r-) and increased 2.02 and 0.14 % compared to control. The results also showed the significant difference among the different functional groups of cattle and sheep dung beetle for bulk density, acidity, electrical conductivity, lime and sulfate. The results indicate that different functional groups may have different impacts on soil properties and their activities lead to an input of nutrients and carbon into the soil food webs, which play an important role in regulating key soil processes and thus contributes to the ecosystem's processes. Further researches on the effects of dung beetles on rangeland ecosystem function are needed in order to improve our knowledge for the effective managements of rangeland in particular in steppe and semi-steppe regions.

Keywords: Organic materials, nutrient cycle, soil fertility, insects

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