Unexpectedly diverse forest dung beetle communities in degraded rainforest landscapes in Madagascar

Tropical forests, which harbor high levels of biodiversity, are
being lost at an alarming speed. Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot, has
lost more than half of its original forest cover. Most of the remaining
forests are small fragments of primary and secondary forest with differing
degrees of human impact. These forests, as well as coffee and fruit
plantations, may be important in supporting the forest dependent
biodiversity in Madagascar but this has been little studied. In Madagascar
dung beetles, which offer important ecosystem services, are largely
restricted to forests. We examined the ability of fragmented and degraded
forests to support dung beetle diversity, compared to the large areas of
primary forest in eastern Madagascar. We found a general trend of a
reduction of species with a loss of forest connectivity. In contrast, a
higher level of forest disturbance was associated with higher species
diversity. In several sites of low-quality forest as many or more species
were found...