Altitudinal Turnover and Species Richness Variation in European Montane Dung Beetle Assemblages

• Main Authors: Jay Robert, Pierre, Lobo, Jorge M., Lumaret, Jean-Pierre
• Other Authors: Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1997
• Subjects: [SHS.ENVIR]Humanities and Social Sciences/Environmental studies; [SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity; Arctic; Arctic and Alpine Research
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03068157; https://doi.org/10.1080/00040851.1997.12003232

International audience The dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea) are divided into several guilds, particularly dwellers and small tunnelers. We analyzed and compared the faunistic composition and the organization of these guilds from several mountain systems in Western Europe. Variation in species richness with altitude, altitudinal turnover, and the taxonomical and biogeographical characteristics of beetles were analyzed. A global analysis enabled an estimation of the importance of the local speciation mechanisms and historical processes, respectively, in the formation of the assemblages in each mountain system. The roles played by each mountain system in the historical perspective of the early Quaternary and in the biogeographical context of the Western Palaearctic are discussed.