Postfire Scenarios Shape Dung Beetle Communities in the Orinoquía Riparian Forest–Savannah Transition

The Orinoquía region of Colombia includes diverse ecosystems such as riparian forests and seasonal savannas, which play vital roles as biodiversity reservoirs. However, increased fire activity, driven by both natural and anthropogenic pressures, poses mounting threats to these ecosystems. Despite their importance, the effects of fire on faunal communities, especially in transitional habitats, are not well understood. Understanding biodiversity responses to fire across different recovery stages is essential for conservation planning. This study aimed to assess the effects of fire occurrence and recovery time on dung beetle communities as an indicator of ecosystem resilience. We analyzed taxonomic responses-including species richness, abundance, and Hill diversity indices (D₀, D₁, D₂)-as well as functional traits such as guild richness, biomass, and food relocation behavior, across riparian forest-savanna ecotones under varying fire histories. Our results indicate that recent fires (≤1 year) and high fire frequencies (4-5 events) negatively affect species diversity and abundance. Dominance by a few disturbance-tolerant species, such as <i>Digitonthophagus gazella</i>, was observed in burned savannas, while forest habitats supported both rare and dominant taxa. Despite taxonomic declines, functional redundancy was maintained, largely due to the prevalence of small-bodied species. However, we observed a general resilience effect in which core species contributed to postfire community reassembly. Functional redundancy was maintained, with small dung beetles dominating the biomass and guild composition. The conservation status of transitional habitats, particularly the forest-savanna ecotone, played a critical role in postfire dung beetle community restructuring. The presence of resilient assemblages highlights the importance of dung beetles in sustaining key ecosystem functions following fire events. These findings underscore the potential of dung beetles as bioindicators for postfire monitoring and emphasize the need for improved fire management strategies in sensitive ecosystems.