Annery Serrano Rodríguez
The objective of our work is promoting the knowledge of functional importance of dung beetles and its use as bio-indicators in a Biosphere Reserve, as a case study in Cuba. This will be carried out through educational workshops with local conservation technicians. We will obtain a catalog and a referent collection of dung beetle that can be used for monitoring inside the area. This is an important result because dung beetles assemblages reflect changes in ecosystem processes and are relatively easy and cheap to sample but this use is only possible when we have a good knowledge of the species.
Soroa.
Biosphere reserves are an example of social-ecological systems that combine biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic development. However, there is a conflict between social development and biodiversity protection. On the other hand, many human land-uses (e.g. regenerating secondary forests, and responsibly managed agro-forestry systems) are compatible with conserving at least part of the native biota.
Although invertebrates have not traditionally been included among target groups for conservation and design of protected areas, dung beetles are a charismatic group, easy to study and sample. They are very susceptible to changes in landscape structure, deforestation, and changes in the composition of the vertebrate fauna. Many studies use them as indicators of biodiversity and ecological disturbance but this is only possible because we have some a priori ecological understanding of disturbance response patterns.
In tropical areas, especially in islands, dung beetles remain poorly studied despite having high levels of endemism. For example, Cuban Scarabaeinae comprises 12 species, ten of which are endemic, one is introduced and some species remain to be discovered. Contemporary data about local biodiversity surveys in indicator taxa is essential for evaluate the effectiveness of protected areas and planning future conservation.
We will provide data about spatial changes on dung beetle community in the Biosphera reserve “Sierra del Rosario” and relate this with land use within the reserve. We must be able to registries. Dung beetle species that are most affected by changes in the landscape will be determined. This is an issue that has to be addressed in local assemblages because it would affect regional bio monitoring and conservation research. Several studies have demonstrated the key role of tropical dung beetle assemblages as ecological indicators, but to be able to use them for this purpose it is necessary to know the species and the use habitat that they do in several scales. This is an interesting and novel issue in island, were dung beetle has evolve with presence of none or very few large mammals.
In addition, this study will be a baseline to standardize the sampling methodology of the species in the region, which is an important factor when using taxa as indicators. Our data would serve as a foundation for future research and monitoring ecological processes and conservation.