Data from: The role of livestock intensification and landscape structure in maintaining tropical biodiversity

1. As tropical cattle ranching continues to expand, successful
conservation will require an improved understanding of the relative
impacts of different livestock systems and landscape structure on
biodiversity. Here, we provide the first empirical and multi-scale
assessment of the relative effects of livestock intensification and
landscape structure on biodiversity in the threatened tropical dry forests
of Mesoamerica. 2. We used a dataset of dung beetles (169 372 individuals
from 33 species) collected from twenty 1-km2 landscapes, ranging from
zero-yielding forest sites to high-yield cattle ranches and maize farms,
to investigate the relative effect of livestock intensification (net
cattle production; macrocyclic lactone use; annual dung production) and
landscape structure (landscape composition and configuration) at multiple
spatial scales on different attributes of dung beetle communities using a
multi-model averaging approach. 3. Dung beetle species richness, biomass
and composition were more strongly related to landscape structure than to
livestock intensification. 4. Forest cover was the best predictor of dung
beetle assemblages, being positively related to species diversity and
biomass across multiple spatial scales. The use of macrocyclic lactones
was strong and negatively related to dung beetle communities at the local
scale. 5. Synthesis and applications: Maximizing forest protection through
a ‘land sparing’ strategy is therefore likely to be the best strategy for
reducing the negative impacts of cattle farming on Neotropical dung beetle
communities. However, increasing or maintaining yields whilst reducing
agrochemical inputs will be important for conserving on-farm biodiversity
and the ecosystem services that dung beetles provide in
livestock-dominated landscapes.31-May-2017