Trond Halvor Larsen

Trond Larsen with substitute for Christmas turkey? X

For the last 14 years, I have studied tropical Scarabaeinae with a focus on ecology and conservation. I’m currently a research scientist at Conservation International as well as a research collaborator with the Entomology Department of the Smithsonian Institution. I’m interested in patterns, causes, and functional consequences of changing dung beetle communities in response to anthropogenic disturbances. I’m also interested in diversity patterns, community structure, resource partitioning, sexual selection, and general natural history of dung beetles. Recent work is examining the impacts of climate change and land-use change on species’ elevational distributions. I work primarily in the Neotropics, but also in Borneo and Papua New Guinea. I have created a website (http://scarabaeinae.lifedesks.org/) with images and species accounts for over 465 Scarabaeinae species, and this database is growing with contributions from the international scarab worker community – please contribute! I am also working on a field guide to dung beetles of the Southwest Amazon (currently with over 350 species).

Trond Larsen
Science and Knowledge Division, Conservation International
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 500
Arlington, Virginia 22202, U.S.A.

EMAIL: trondhlarsen@gmail.com

BOOKS

Larsen, T.H. with photos by R. Toft. 2010. Osa: Where the rainforest meets the sea. Zona Tropical Press, 222 pp., San Jose, Costa Rica.

Larsen, T.H. & A. Forsyth. Field Guide to Dung Beetles of the Southwest Amazon. In prep.

SELECTED ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

Edwards, D., T.H. Larsen, T. Docherty, F. Ansell, W. Hsu, M. Derhe, K. Hamer & D. Wilcove. 2011. Degraded lands worth protecting: the biological importance of Southeast Asia’s repeatedly logged forests. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 278(1702):82-90.

Hamel-Leigue, A.C., S.K. Herzog, D.J. Mann, T.H. Larsen, B.D. Gill, W.D. Edmonds, & S. Spector. 2009. Distribution and natural history of the dung beetle tribe Phanaeini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) in Bolivia. Kempffiana, 5(2):43-95.

Larsen, T.H. In press. Upslope range shifts of Andean dung beetles in response to deforestation: microclimatic change compounds and confounds effects of global climate change. Biotropica.

Larsen, T.H. 2004. Dung Beetles/Escarabajos peloteros. In: C. Vriesendorp, L. Rivera Chavez, D. Moskovits and J. Shopland (eds.) Peru: Megantoni. Rapid Biological Inventories Report 15, pp. 77-84, 185-192. Chicago, Illinois: The Field Museum.

Larsen, T.H. 2007. Dung Beetles. In: L. Alonso & J. Mol (eds.) A Rapid Biological Assessment of the Lely and Nassau Plateaus, Suriname. RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 43, pp. 99-101, 232-233. Arlington, Virginia: Conservation InternationalLarsen, T.H., A. Lopera, & A. Forsyth. 2006. Extreme trophic and habitat specialization by Peruvian dung beetles. Coleopterist’s Bulletin, 60(4): 315-324.

Larsen, T.H., G. Brehm, H. Navarrete, P. Franco, H. Gomez, J.L. Mena, V. Morales, J. Argollo, L. Blacutt, & V. Canhos. In press. Range shifts and extinctions driven by climate change in the tropical Andes: synthesis and directions. In: Climate change effects on the biodiversity of the tropical Andes: an assessment of the status of scientific knowledge. (eds. Herzog SK, Martinez R, Jorgensen PM, Tiessen H). São José dos Campos and Paris, Inter-American Institute of Global Change Research (IAI) and Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE).

Larsen, T.H., F. Escobar, & I. Armbrecht. In press. Insects of the Tropical Andes: diversity patterns, processes and global change. In: Climate change effects on the biodiversity of the tropical Andes: an assessment of the status of scientific knowledge. (eds. Herzog SK, Martinez R, Jorgensen PM, Tiessen H). São José dos Campos and Paris, Inter-American Institute of Global Change Research (IAI) and Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE).

Larsen, T.H. & A. Forsyth. 2005. Trap spacing and transect design for dung beetle biodiversity studies. Biotropica, 37(2): 322-325.

Larsen, T.H. & F. Genier. 2008. Dung beetles of Los Amigos, Madre de Dios, Peru. 19 pp. The Field Museum. Chicago, IL. http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guideimages.asp?ID=364

Larsen, T.H. & F. Genier. 2008. Dung beetles of Cocha Cashu, Madre de Dios, Peru. 11 pp. The Field Museum. Chicago, IL. http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guideimages.asp?ID=365

Larsen, T.H., A. Lopera, & A. Forsyth. 2008. Understanding trait-dependent community disassembly: dung beetles, density functions and forest fragmentation. Conservation Biology, 22(5): 1288-1298.

Larsen, T.H, A. Lopera, A. Forsyth, & F. Genier. 2009. From coprophagy to predation: a dung beetle that kills millipedes. Biology Letters, 5(2):152-155.

Larsen, T.H., N. Williams, & C. Kremen. 2005. Extinction order and altered community structure rapidly disrupt ecosystem functioning. Ecology Letters, 8: 538-547.

Nichols, E., T.H. Larsen, S. Spector, A. Davis, K. Vulinec, F. Escobar, & the Scarabaeinae Research Network. 2007. Global dung beetle response to tropical forest modification and fragmentation: A quantitative literature review and meta-analysis. Biological Conservation, 137(1): 1-19.

Nichols, E., S. Spector, J. Louzada, T.H. Larsen, S. Amezquita, M.E. Favila. 2008. Review: Ecological functions and ecosystem services provided by Scarabaeinae dung beetles. Biological Conservation, 141(6):1461-1474.

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