Abstract Environmental fluctuations, such as changes in climate, agricultural management and anthropogenic land-use patterns can affect the diversity of organisms inhabiting an area. Losses of biodiversity alter ecosystems processes, eroding their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Dung beetles are critical ecosystem service providers, making them an ideal ecological indicator to explore the effects of land-use change on biodiversity. Dung beetles were sampled across three land-use types, in the summers of 2015 and 2016 in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Game ranching is regarded as a relatively low-intensity land use type. It was compared with cattle ranching (medium intensity) and dairy farming (high intensity) to examine their effect on dung beetle assemblage metrics (abundance, species richness and true Shannon diversity index), guild diversity (as nesting guilds) and spatial turnover. The intermediate grazing intensity of cattle ranching supported a higher abundance and diversity of both whole dung beetle assemblage and the nesting guilds, followed by the game ranches and then dairy farms. Differences between the sampling years were dependent on the beetle nesting guild, and largely correlated with rainfall and temperature. Cattle and game ranches shared a higher number of species than either shared with dairy farms. Whittaker's Beta-diversity index showed the highest species turnover between game ranches and dairy farms. A mix of game and cattle ranching, minimising dairy farming or restricting it to already ecological degraded sites, appears the best alternative for maintenance of dung beetle diversity and their ecosystem services. The year-to-year trends of the data were in general consistent, confirming that dung beetles are reliable ecological indicators; but also suggest that climate change that affects rainfall will result in the reduction of the abundance and diversity of this key ecological group.

中文翻译：

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中度干扰促进了南非东开普省的蜣螂（金龟子科：金龟子科和蚜科）的多样性和保护

摘要 环境波动，如气候、农业管理和人为土地利用模式的变化，会影响居住在一个地区的生物多样性。生物多样性的丧失会改变生态系统过程，削弱其提供生态系统服务的能力。粪甲虫是重要的生态系统服务提供者，使其成为探索土地利用变化对生物多样性影响的理想生态指标。2015 年和 2016 年夏季，在南非东开普省的三种土地利用类型中对蜣螂进行了采样。游戏牧场被认为是一种相对低强度的土地利用类型。将其与养牛场（中等强度）和奶牛场（高强度）进行比较，以检查它们对蜣螂组合指标（丰富度、物种丰富度和真实香农多样性指数）的影响，公会多样性（作为嵌套公会）和空间周转。养牛场的中等放牧强度支持整个粪甲虫组合和筑巢行会的丰度和多样性更高，其次是猎场，然后是奶牛场。采样年份之间的差异取决于甲虫筑巢行会，并且在很大程度上与降雨量和温度相关。与奶牛场相比，牛和野味牧场共享的物种数量更多。Whittaker 的 Beta 多样性指数显示，猎物牧场和奶牛场之间的物种周转率最高。野味和养牛场的结合，最大限度地减少奶牛养殖或将其限制在已经生态退化的地点，似乎是维持粪甲虫多样性及其生态系统服务的最佳选择。数据的逐年趋势大体一致，证实粪甲虫是可靠的生态指标；但也表明影响降雨的气候变化将导致这一关键生态群的丰度和多样性减少。