Br. Striganova, CHANGES IN STRUCTURE AND BIODIVERSITY OF SOIL FAUNA ON FOREST-STEPPE CATENA IN CENTRAL RUSSIA, Izvestia Akademii nauk SSSR. Seria biologiceskaa, (2), 1995, pp. 191-208
For the first time, studies on the influence of mesorelief on soil fau
na structure and biodiversity in a forest-steppe zone of the Central R
ussia were performed. The soil mesofauna of eight forest plots located
on the watershed slope was studied. Changes in the content of dominan
ts, trophic structure, fauna abundance, and parameters of invertebrate
biodiversity were analyzed for various mesorelief components. Biodive
rsity and likeness indices were shown to be minimal for undisturbed ha
bitats at the extreme positions of the catena studied (watershed and o
verfloodland slope parts). Fauna structure was found to correspond to
the local dynamics soil processes. At the transitive position, formali
zed parameters displayed the highest values. In the mesopedobiontic co
mplexes of the middle part of the watershed slope, faunogenetic elemen
ts characteristic of the entire landscape zone were significant: repre
sentatives of a group of forest-steppe species occurring only in the z
onal habitats within the boundaries of the forest-steppe were included
in the content of dominants. The groups of invertebrates of secondary
forests and forest plantations at the upper and lower positions of th
e catena displayed high similarity indices to the fauna of the middle
part of the catena. These areas can be seen as the channels of soil fa
una distribution over the mesorelief profile. The results obtained dem
onstrate the significance of mesorelief as a factor determining specif
ic distribution and structure of the soil fauna on the plain.