Abstract Research suggests dung beetles can churn, aerate, and desiccate dung in ways that influence the dung and soil microbes producing greenhouse gases (GHGs). We examined the impacts of the tunneling beetle, Onthophagus taurus (Schreber), and the dwelling beetle, Labarrus pseudolividus (Balthasar), on the carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emitted from pasture-laid bovine dung as well as their sum-total (CO2 + CH4 + N2O) effect on global warming, or their carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Despite dung beetles potential effects on CH4 and N2O, the existing literature shows no ultimate CO2e reductions. We hypothesized that more dung beetles would degrade pats faster and reduce CO2e, and so we increased the average dung beetle biomass per dung volume 6.22× above previously published records, and visually documented any dung damage. However, the time effects were 2–5× greater for any GHG and CO2e (E = 0.27–0.77) than dung beetle effects alone (E = 0.09–0.24). This suggests that dung beetle communities cannot adequately reduce GHGs unless they can accelerate dung decomposition faster than time alone.

中文翻译：

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碳中和：蜣螂（鞘翅目：金龟科）无法影响牧场中粪便产生的温室气体

摘要 研究表明，粪甲虫可以通过影响粪便和土壤微生物产生温室气体 (GHG) 的方式搅动、通气和干燥粪便。我们研究了隧道甲虫 Onthophagus taurus (Schreber) 和居住甲虫 Labarrus pseudolividus (Balthasar) 对放牧地排放的二氧化碳 (CO2)、甲烷 (CH4) 和一氧化二氮 (N2O) 的影响牛粪及其总和 (CO2 + CH4 + N2O) 对全球变暖的影响，或它们的二氧化碳当量 (CO2e)。尽管蜣螂对 CH4 和 N2O 有潜在影响，但现有文献表明没有最终的 CO2e 减少。我们假设更多的蜣螂会更快地降解宠物并减少二氧化碳当量，因此我们将每个粪便体积的平均蜣螂生物量增加了 6.22 倍于先前公布的记录，并目视记录任何粪便损坏。然而，任何 GHG 和 CO2e 的时间效应（E = 0.27–0.77）比单独的蜣螂效应（E = 0.09–0.24）大 2–5 倍。这表明粪甲虫群落不能充分减少温室气体，除非它们能够比单独时间更快地加速粪便分解。