1. Central European forests experience a substantial loss of open-forest organisms due to forest management and increasing nitrogen deposition. However, management strategies, removing different levels of nitrogen, have been rarely evaluated simultaneously.
2. We tested the additive effects of coppicing and topsoil removal on communities of dung-inhabiting beetles compared to closed forests. We sampled 57 021 beetles, using baited pitfall traps exposed on 27 plots.
3. Experimental treatments resulted in significantly different communities by promoting open-habitat species. While alpha diversity did not differ among treatments, gamma diversity of Geotrupidae and Scarabaeidae and beta diversity of Staphylinidae were higher in coppice than in forest. Functional diversity of rove beetles was higher in both, coppice and topsoil-removed plots, compared to control plots. This was likely driven by higher habitat heterogeneity in established forest openings. Five dung beetle species and four rove beetle species benefitted from coppicing, one red-listed dung beetle and two rove beetle species benefitted from topsoil removal.
4. Our results demonstrate that dung-inhabiting beetles related to open forest patches can be promoted by both, coppicing and additional topsoil removal. A mosaic of coppice and bare-soil-rich patches can hence promote landscape-level gamma diversity of dung and rove beetles within forests.

中文翻译：

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覆盖和去除表土促进了森林中粪便甲虫（鞘翅目：金龟子科、地壳虫科、葡萄球菌科）的多样性

1. 由于森林管理和氮沉降增加，中欧森林经历了大量开放森林生物的损失。然而，很少同时评估去除不同水平氮的管理策略。
2. 我们测试了与封闭森林相比，覆盖和去除表土对粪便甲虫群落的累加效应。我们使用暴露在 27 个地块上的诱饵陷阱对 57 021 只甲虫进行了采样。
3. 实验性处理通过促进开放栖息地物种产生了显着不同的群落。虽然不同处理之间的α多样性没有差异，但矮林中Geotrupidae和Scarabaeidae的γ多样性以及Staphylinidae的β多样性高于森林。与对照地块相比，在矮林和去除表土的地块中，罗夫甲虫的功能多样性更高。这可能是由已建立的森林开口中较高的栖息地异质性驱动的。5 种蜣螂物种和 4 种漫游甲虫物种从种植中受益，一种被列入红色名单的蜣螂物种和两种漫游甲虫物种从表土去除中受益。
4. 我们的研究结果表明，与开放森林斑块相关的粪便甲虫可以通过种植和额外去除表土来促进。因此，灌木丛和富含裸露土壤的斑块可以促进森林中粪甲虫和漫游甲虫的景观级伽马多样性。