Does the US Today really think this is going to move the needle?
Dung beetles have a tough life. Climate change is making it worse
A recent study in Peru’s Amazon found that rising temperatures from climate change are pushing dung beetles beyond their thermal limits, reducing species diversity at both low and high elevations and threatening their ecological roles.
Not exactly the poster child for cute animals, dung beetles now join the list of species affected by human-caused climate change.
Indeed, the long tentacles of climate change now extend all the way into the dreary lives of dung beetles in the Amazon rainforest, a new study suggests.
“With ongoing climate change, rising temperatures may push dung beetles beyond their physiological limits,” said study lead author Kim Lea Holzmann of the University of Wurzburg in Germany, in an e-mail to USA TODAY.
“May.”
Besides their important role in ecosystems, dung beetles are an excellent model group for ecological research because their biology and ecology are relatively well understood, Holzmann said. “This makes them a valuable study system. They can be sampled using standardized trapping methods worldwide, since they are easily attracted to dung and carrion, which allows for comparable data across different regions.”
In addition, dung beetles are highly sensitive to environmental disturbances such as habitat loss, land-use change, and climate shifts. Because of this sensitivity, they serve as strong bioindicators, meaning changes in their communities can reflect broader ecosystem changes.
Well, they seem to have survived numerous Holocene warm and cool periods, so, enough with the scaremongering.
Although having a name that adolescents find humourous dung beetles are considered to be a keystone species in ecosystems. The current temps are hotter then st any previous time during the Holocene and our current rate of increase is 10 times or more than has been observed by proxy data
Rain Forrest soils hold few nutrients they get washed away by heavy rain. Dung beetles bury dung under gtoundc and fertilize it