Location of seed mimics in the soil

The depths of seed mimics recovered from soil beneath mesocosms during 2012 experiment

Seedling emergence and survival within germination plots

The emergence and survival of seeds planted at various depths, either with or without dun

Beetles species with traits in 2014 mesocosms

Species list with continuous and categorical trait information of dung beetles recovered from 2014 mesocosm experiment

Beetle species with traits in 2012 mesocosms

Dung beetle species recovered from mesocosms during 2012 experiments with continuous and categorical trait informatio

Seedling emergence and survival within germination plots

The emergence and survival of seeds planted at various depths, either with or without dun

Mean values of (A) abundance, biomass and richness of dung beetles, (B) amount of soil excavated and dung removed, and (C) secondary dispersal of small, medium and large seed mimics.

<p>Land-use systems sampled were: primary forest (PF), secondary forest (SF), agroforest (AF), agriculture (AG) and pasture (PA). Different letters above bars indicate statistically significant differences (p<0.05) among land-use systems. Error bars represent ±1 SEM.</p

Total number of individuals, by species, captured in different land-use systems in Benjamin Constant, AM, Brazil.

<p>Mean body weight of dung beetle species, the number of beetles used to calculate mean body weight (<i>n</i>) and body length category (‘Small’ for species <10 mm long and ‘Large’ for species ≥10 mm long) are also shown. Land-use systems are: primary forest (PF), agroforest (AF), secondary forest (SF), agriculture (AG) and pasture (PA).</p

Study areas and sampling design in Amazonas State, Brazil (reproduced, with permission, from Google Earth™).

<p>(A) Benjamin Constant municipality. (B) Guanabara II community. (C) Noval Aliança community. Replicates of each land-use treatment were proportionally distributed inside the grids according to the availability of distinct land-use systems in the study area. Each sample point was comprised of three pitfall traps for the measurement of community attributes and one experimental dung unit for the measurement of functions <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057786#pone.0057786-Braga1" target="_blank">[31]</a>.</p

Experimental arena used for measuring three ecological functions of dung beetles.

<p>(A) The experimental dung pile in the center of the arena should be protected from rain. (A1) Plastic beads of different sizes were placed within the dung as seed mimics. (B) General setup of the experimental arena (see main text for description).</p

Patterns of rarity in the species data used in this paper.

<p>Panels show the cumulative proportion of species (black symbols) and individuals (open symbols) removed from primary forest (circles), secondary forests (squares) and tree plantations (triangles) (i.e. following the removal of singletons, doubletons, and so on, up to those species that were recorded ≤10 times in each forest type).</p