Summary
At Amsterdam Island, cattle were introduced in 1871 but there were no native coprophagous fauna. This chapter focuses on the succession of the fauna involved in dung degradation during a summer, 90-day experiment and on changes in water, dry matter and nitrogen contents. A small number of invertebrate species was sampled from the dung and the soil beneath it. The presence of Diptera larvae (mainly Fucellia tergina), caterpillars (Noctuidae) and earthworms (Dendrobaena rubida tenuis and D. subrubicundd) was noticed. Porcellio scaber (Isopoda) was dominant and the dry matter and nitrogen losses may be related especially to the activity of this species which leads to a coarse fragmentation of dung and its conversion to fecal pellets.
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Tréhen, P., Frenot, Y., Lebouvier, M., Vernon, P. (1990). Invertebrate Fauna and Their Role in the Degradation of Cattle Dung at Amsterdam Island. In: Kerry, K.R., Hempel, G. (eds) Antarctic Ecosystems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84074-6_37
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