Grades 3–5 · Organisms
How do dung beetles help return nutrients to soil?
Animal dung still contains useful material from food. Some dung beetles eat it and bury portions underground. What seems like waste to one animal becomes a food source for another and for its young.
In the diagramBurial moves dung into a soil food networksurface dungbeetles + microbes transform materialplant uptakeExample tunneler; nutrients move through a soil network.
A tunneling beetle moves dung from the surface into chambers beneath the ground. This places organic material among soil particles instead of leaving all of it in a pile on top. Its tunnels also change the soil’s structure.
Beetles and microbes transform the buried material as they feed and grow. Nutrient elements can enter soil forms that plants take up. These elements are being moved and changed, rather than created from nothing by the beetle.
Many living things share the work of recycling dung. The contribution of a particular beetle depends on its habits and surroundings. Burial connects animal feeding, insect life and soil processes in one small underground route.
About this explanation
Starting knowledge: Know that animal waste contains material from food and that roots take up nutrients from soil.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Zoo — Investigating the Role of Invertebrates in Nutrient Cycling