The role of natural savanna in maintaining dung beetle diversity and their ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes in the Brazilian Cerrado

Abstract The intensity of management and local agricultural practices can affect habitat permeability to biodiversity and ecosystem services in habitat patches in the landscape in different ways. Agriculture intensification can reduce the abundance and diversity of dung beetles and diminish their functional role in ecosystems. However, natural landscapes may buffer the negative effects of high‐intensity agriculture on dung beetle assemblages. We evaluated the influence of landscape metrics and intensity of agricultural management on dung beetle assemblages in Brazilian Cerrado, a tropical region severely threatened by agricultural expansion. We captured dung beetles at native Cerrado, organic and conventional agriculture sites. We used piecewise structural equation modelling to investigate whether landscape metrics and intensity of management practices affect the taxonomic and functional diversity of dung beetles and dung removal function. The amount of savanna formations is the most important landscape type, supporting dung beetles and their ecosystem services. Organic farming increased habitat permeability to dung beetle species, while conventional farming negatively affected them. The richness of the species mediated functional diversity and ecosystem services locally. Synthesis and applications . Low‐intensity management agriculture, such as organic agriculture, can benefit landscape permeability to key insects that provide ecosystem services to agriculture. Maintenance of natural savanna patches can increase the pool of species, benefiting local populations and the provision of their ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. As a practical application, we recommend promoting low‐intensity agricultural practices, such as organic farming, combined with the conservation and restoration of natural savanna areas in the Cerrado biome to reduce the dominance and impacts of large‐scale crops in the landscape.