The insects limit the amount of greenhouse gases released by cowpats

Aug 23, 2013 20:51 GMT  ·  By
Dung beetles help limit the amount of methane released by cowpats, researchers find
   Dung beetles help limit the amount of methane released by cowpats, researchers find

Scientists at the University of Helsinki now claim that, as disgusting as some people think them to be, dung beetles are actually pretty useful.

More precisely, they say that these insects help limit the amount of greenhouse gases released by cowpats. Otherwise put, they make the business of raising cattle for milk and meat a tad more environmentally friendly.

Writing in the journal PLOS ONE, the scientists explain that cattle are a major contributor to global warming.

They don't burn coal or drive around in cars running on dirty fuels, but they do burp and pass gas more often than they might be willing to admit in public. Whenever they do so, they release methane.

By the looks of it, this greenhouse gas is also released by dung pats that cattle leave behind on pastures.

Dung beetles help improve on a cattle farm's ecological footprint simply by living in cow poop and digging through it every once in a while.

Thus, by aerating the dung, they impair the process of methane formation. Hence the fact that less of this greenhouse gas gets released by cow poop into the atmosphere.

“Methane is primarily born under anaerobic conditions, and the tunneling by beetles seems to aerate the pats,” researcher Atte Penttilä explains, as cited by EurekAlert.

“If the beetles can keep those methane emissions down, well then we should obviously thank them – and make sure to include them in our calculations of overall climatic effects of dairy and beef farming,” he goes on to say.

Atte Penttilä warns that, according to several previous studies, the world's dung beetle population in steadily declining. On the other hand, cattle farms are only getting bigger and more numerous.

Therefore, they might come a day when this agricultural branch starts releasing way more greenhouse gases than it currently does.

“When you combine the current increase in meat consumption around the world with the steep declines in many dung beetle species, overall emissions from cattle farming can only increase,” Atte Penttilä cautions.