Scarabaeinae (Coleptera: scarabaeidae): de comunidades amazônicas brasileiras a metaanálise comunitária global

Abstract

We investigated the metacommunity structure in three areas (forest, reforestation and pasture) in the Amazon biome in Cotriguaçu, Mato Grosso. To evaluate the effects of five predictor variables: a) area size, b) pH, c) phosphorus, d) aluminum, e) soil textual class, on Scarabaeina communities, and we considered a Generalized Linear Model with Quasi-Poisson distribution (GLM ). A total of 21,271 individuals were collected, 65 species from the Ateuchini, Coprini, Deltochilini, Canthonini, Phanaenini, Dichotomiini and Oniticellini tribes. The most abundant species were Canthonhistrio with 5,331 individuals (23%), Canthonaffsimulans with 3,467 individuals (15%), Onthophagusaffhirculus with 3,253 individuals (14%) and Onthophagusaffhaematopus with 2,033 individuals (9%). Of the total number of individuals, 52% are paracoprid, 43% telecoprid and 5% endocoprid. The endocoprid guild is affected by soil pH, occurring in greater abundance in acidic soils. The tunneling guild responds distinctly to soil textural classes preferring a low phosphorus level. The Paracoprid guild was not significantly influenced by any of the analyzed predictors, suggesting that there are other process-generating factors influencing richness and abundance. In addition to the predictive variables investigated, other factors such as inter and intraspecific competition can also affect the structure, composition, diversity and abundance of Scarabaeinae in environments, which deserve further investigation. In the systematic review, the largest area of research concentration was entomology (125). Among the countries and authors that most published articles on the Scarabaeinae community between 1977 and 2022, Brazil stood out in first place with 127 publications, with Vaz-de-Mello FZ being the Brazilian author with the highest number of articles (29). The factors identified with potential to influence the structure of scarab beetle communities are: attraction to baits, pasture, management, agriculture and forestry, ecological restoration, urbanization, among others. For meta-analysis, it was not possible to analyze all factors due to the high value of heterogeneity between studies. Of the 300 articles selected for systematic review, several variables that affect the community structure of Scarabaeinae were addressed, as mentioned above. As these are continuous data, where the regression indices are many variables (r, r², F, t and z with different degrees of freedom), only 39 articles were eligible for the meta-analysis. The regression indices (r², F, t and z) and the sample size (n) of each study were extracted. The statistical indices were converted to the correlation coefficient (r). The effect of land use on Scarabaeinae richness was smaller in pastures compared to forest fragmentation, fire, ecotourism, monoculture, regeneration, urban area and degraded areas, however the authors emphasized that there was a change in species composition between areas which can trigger a negative effect on the ecological functions performed by these beetles. Most studies focused on pastures, which made it difficult to more accurately analyze the other categories, generating a knowledge gap.