DUNG BEETLES AND GREENHOUSE EMISSIONS.

Cattle contributes to global warming by burping and farting large amounts of greenhouse gases and Some of the same gases are also emitted from cow pats on pastures. Researchers have found that beetles living in cow pats may reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas, methane. By digging around in their food, dung beetles like Aphodius pedellus may aerate cow pats and thereby modify methane emissions which will prevent climatic changes according to a study published in the journal PLoS ONE. Agriculture is one of the biggest sources of the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming and among these, cattle farming for meat and milk are major sources of methane, a gas with a potent warming effect. A large percentage of this methane comes from the guts of ruminating cattle, but some escapes from dung pats on pastures. Cow pats offer a prime food for a large number of organisms there are probably as many beetle species living in dung . The dung beetles live and spend most of their entire lives within the dung pats. The beetles exert much of their impact by simply digging around in the dung, and the tunneling by beetles seems to aerate the pats. This will have a major impact on how carbon escapes from cow pats into the atmosphere. This aeration prevents the production of methane,thus preventing the warming effect of the gas.