Anecdote

Roll it around--dung beetles

For most people， the dung beetle is a black beetle who tirelessly rolls the little dung-ball on the African prairie. The dung beetle is happy to clean up the rubbish and waste that nobody wants.

Tomas Roslin， an insect ecologist at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences， together with his colleagues， has found that dung beetles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “We are talking fairly big effects， like a reduction of 40% of total methane emissions from any single dung pat inhabited by beetles，" Roslin says. "Dung beetle tunnels will serve as ventilation shafts， bringing oxygen into the pat. That will shift the balance between different microbes. Methane-producing microbes don't like oxygen."

Of course， the contribution of these small beetles would not be that significant given the greenhouse gas emissions throughout the food chain. But that does not affect the great contribution the dung beetle has made in protecting the earths environment.endprint