HABITAT DISTRIBUTION OF TERRESTRIAL COLEOPTERA IN ICELAND AS INDICATED BY NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS

This paper explores the relationship between beetle communities and th eir Icelandic habitats. It illustrates an approach where environmental associations inferred by previous workers from qualitative data may n ow be analysed statistically. Numerical analysis using TWINSPAN and DE CORANA has been used to classify 303 localities from three study areas on the basis of a total of fifty-nine species of terrestrial Coleopte ra. The classification produces groupings of distinct habitat types in cluding woodland, southern haybarns, northern haybarns, infields (tun) , dry meadows, wet meadows (engi), outfields (hagi), coastal grassland s and littoral areas. Ordination of the classified data indicates that exposure, moisture levels and latitude are critical environmental fac tors.