Grazing by large herbivorous mammals is still a structuring force in tropical grassy ecosystems, and cattle grazing is one of the main economic activities carried out in these ecosystems in modern times. Therefore, understanding the impacts of cattle grazing removal on biodiversity may be a key step for conservation of this ecosystem. Here, we studied the successional trajectory of dung beetle communities in a tropical grassy ecosystem after cattle removal. For this, we assessed the patterns of dung beetle taxonomic and functional diversity of 14 natural grasslands with distinct cattle grazing removal ages (from 3 months to 22 years) along a chronosequence, applying the space-for-time substitution method. Our results show a strong decrease in dung beetle abundance (93 times) and species richness (6 times) in the first ten years of cattle removal. However, after ten years there is an increase in dung beetle abundance (73 times) and species richness (5 times). Taxonomic composition was also influenced by cattle removal time demonstrating the importance of cattle in the structuring of dung beetle communities in natural grasslands. In contrast, functional composition and diversity were not affected by cattle grazing removal, indicating these metrics are less sensitive to cattle absence than taxonomic diversity and composition. Our results provide evidence that cattle grazing removal, at least in the short term (10 years), may be an inefficient management tool for restoration and conservation of tropical grassy ecosystems. However, we highlight the need to investigate the reintroduction of cattle grazing after different removal times to provide complimentary information to livestock management able to integrate human use and conservation of tropical grassy ecosystems.

大型草食性哺乳动物的放牧仍然是热带草地生态系统中的一种结构力量，而放牧牲畜是近代在这些生态系统中进行的主要经济活动之一。因此，了解放牧对生物多样性的影响可能是保护该生态系统的关键步骤。在这里，我们研究了牛搬迁后热带草木生态系统中的甲虫群落的演替轨迹。为此，我们应用时空置换方法，评估了14个天然草场的粪甲虫分类学和功能多样性的模式，这些草场具有不同的放牧年龄（从3个月到22年）。我们的研究结果表明，在移牛的头十年中，甲虫的丰度（93倍）和物种丰富度（6倍）大大降低。但是，十年后，粪甲虫的丰度（73倍）和物种丰富度（5倍）增加了。分类学组成也受到牛摘除时间的影响，证明了牛在自然草原上的甲虫群落结构中的重要性。相比之下，功能组成和多样性不受牲畜放牧的影响，表明这些指标对牲畜缺席的敏感性低于分类学多样性和组成。我们的结果提供了证据，证明至少在短期内（10年内）清除牛群可能是恢复和保护热带草地生态系统的低效管理工具。然而，