Los escarabajos coprófagos (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) en el parque nacional de Cabañeros: influencia del hábitat y el paisaje

Abstract

Protected areas play an essential role in biodiversity conservation reflecting in some manner the environmental conditions that allow both the existence of communities with high species richness and the maintenance of ecological processes. We presented the main findings of a study of landscape structure and its influence on the biodiversity patterns of dung beetles in the Cabañeros National Park. Using pitfall traps in three habitat types immersed in three different landscape matrices (forest, scrubland and grassland) we recorded 75000 individuals of 52 species of dung beetles. Differences found in species richness and composition at habitat and landscape scales support the idea that the conservation of biodiversity in Mediterranean ecosystems implies the maintenance of the natural levels of spatial and temporal heterogeneity at all scales.