Dung beetles are influential components of many ecosystems and can be key ecosystem service providers. This presentation will include an overview of three ongoing projects designed to improve our understanding of the landscape and community ecology of dung beetles and their implications for conservation and ecosystem services. First, in contrast to other service-providing insects like pollinators and natural enemies, we know relatively little about how landscape structure affects dung beetle communities. Therefore, we are conducting a study to determine how they respond to the composition of landscapes in Kentucky by sampling communities from habitats that are managed similarly but occur across a gradient of landscape contexts where sampling sites are surrounded by different amounts of croplands, pasture, and forest. Second, dung beetles inhabit landscapes where large proportions of the manure they encounter are contaminated with de-worming products that reduce their fitness. We are working to uncover how de-wormer use filters and shapes dung beetle communities and whether they have evolved resistance to these compounds. Finally, we are exploring dung beetles’ role as soil engineers. The species that bury manure can change soil profiles by adding organic matter and creating macropores. We have begun exploring whether their digging activities can contribute to remediation of degraded soils on reclaimed surface mines and whether they could be deployed alongside small ruminant herds as a large-scale restoration tool
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