Spatial but not temporal dung beetle β‐diversity components are scale‐dependent in a mainland–island scenario

Abstract β ‐diversity is key in understanding how ecological communities have been assembled across spatiotemporal scales. Separating β ‐diversity into its process‐related components can provide richer insights into biodiversity organization. In this study, we aimed to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of β ‐diversity components in the composition and structure of dung beetle communities. Dung beetles were sampled in 20 Atlantic Forest sites in a mainland–island scenario. We partitioned β ‐diversity dissimilarity based on species composition and abundance into turnover and nestedness components, and into balanced variation in abundance and abundance gradient components respectively. The mainland had higher multiple‐site values of spatial turnover and balanced variation in abundance than the island; meanwhile, nestedness‐resultant dissimilarity and abundance gradients had low relative importance, although the latter values were always higher on the island. There was an increase of spatial turnover and balanced variation in abundance with spatial extent, while nestedness‐resultant dissimilarity and abundance gradients were unrelated to the scale. The temporal turnover increased with increasing spatial extents and a different response pattern occurred between mainland and island. Our study provides support for how spatial extents influence both incidence‐based and abundance‐based β ‐diversity components and shape metacommunity composition and structure in mainland–island systems.