Our knowledge of how tropical forest biodiversity and functioning respond to anthropogenic and climate-associated stressors is limited. Research exploring El Nino impacts are scarce or based on single post-disturbance assessments, and few studies assess forests previously affected by anthropogenic disturbance. Focusing on dung beetles and associated ecological functions, we assessed (a) the ecological effects of a strong El Nino, (b) if post-El Nino beetle responses were influenced by previous forest disturbance, and (c) how these responses compare between forests impacted only by drought and those affected by both drought and fires. We sampled 30 Amazonian forest plots distributed across a gradient of human disturbance in 2010, 2016, and 2017—approximately 5 years before, and 3–6 and 15–18 months after the 2015–16 El Nino. We found 14,451 beetles from 98 species and quantified the beetle-mediated dispersal of >8,600 seed mimics and the removal of c. 30 kg of dung. All dung beetle responses (species richness, abundance, biomass, compositional similarity to pre-El Nino condition, and rates of dung removal and seed dispersal) declined after the 2015–16 El Nino, but the greatest immediate losses (i.e., in 2016) were observed within fire-affected forests. Previous forest disturbance also influenced post-El Nino dung beetle species richness, abundance, and species composition. We demonstrate that dung beetles and their ecological functions are negatively affected by climate-associated disturbances in human-modified Amazonian forests and suggest that the interaction between local anthropogenic and climate-related stressors merits further investigation. Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

中文翻译：

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厄尔尼诺现象对人类改造的热带森林的影响：粪甲虫多样性和相关生态过程的后果

我们对热带森林生物多样性和功能如何应对人为和气候相关压力因素的了解有限。探索厄尔尼诺影响的研究很少或基于单一的干扰后评估，而且很少有研究评估以前受人为干扰影响的森林。专注于粪甲虫和相关的生态功能，我们评估了 (a) 强厄尔尼诺现象的生态影响，(b) 厄尔尼诺现象后甲虫的反应是否受到先前森林干扰的影响，以及 (c) 这些反应如何在森林之间进行比较仅受干旱影响以及受干旱和火灾双重影响的国家。我们在 2010 年、2016 年和 2017 年（大约在 2015-16 年厄尔尼诺现象发生前 5 年和 3-6 个月和 15-18 个月后）对分布在人类干扰梯度上的 30 个亚马逊森林地块进行了采样。我们找到了 14 个，来自 98 个物种的 451 只甲虫并量化了甲虫介导的 > 8,600 种种子模拟物的传播和 c. 的去除。30公斤粪便。2015-16 年厄尔尼诺之后，所有蜣螂的反应（物种丰富度、丰度、生物量、与厄尔尼诺前条件的组成相似性以及粪便清除率和种子传播率）均有所下降，但直接损失最大（即 2016 年）在受火灾影响的森林中观察到。先前的森林干扰也影响了厄尔尼诺之后的蜣螂物种丰富度、丰度和物种组成。我们证明蜣螂及其生态功能受到人类改造的亚马逊森林中气候相关干扰的负面影响，并表明当地人为压力源和气候相关压力源之间的相互作用值得进一步研究。