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Contemporary Problems of Ecology

2013 year, number 1

Theriofaunistic Zoning of Northern Eurasia

Yu. S. RAVKIN1,2, I. N. BOGOMOLOVA2, O. N. NIKOLAEVA3
1Tomsk State University, 634050, Tomsk, Lenin ave., 36
zm@eco.nsc.ru
2Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals SB RAS, 630091, Novosibirsk, Frunze str., 11
3Siberian State Geodesic Academy, 630108, Novosibirsk, Plakhotny str., 10
rektorat@ssga.ru
Keywords: zoning, fauna, mammals, Palaearctic, Northern Eurasia, cluster analysis, factors, correlation
Pages: 111-121

Abstract

For the purpose of zoning on the basis of theriofauna, Northern Eurasia taken within the boundaries of the USSR in 1991, was divided into 245 grounds. This was made over the vegetation map of the world with plotting scale 1 2 000 000 so that each ground occupied a territory within the limits of natural subzone extended over the latitude for 10°. A list of met species was compiled for the ranges of mammals. Jacquard quotients of similarity were calculated according to these lists; the quotients were taken as the basis to perform cluster analysis of theriofauna of the assigned grounds. The hierarchic classification was composed on the basis of calculation results; it includes three theriofaunistic regions divided into seven subregions that can be represented in the form of two series of changes, mainly on the islands or on the continent. All the subregions except one were divided into 18 provinces and 17 districts; one of the districts was divided into four subdistricts. Environmental factors correlating with theriofaunistic inhomogeneity of the studied territory were revealed. The proposed division is 1.9–3 times more informative than previously developed schemes and takes into account 69 % dispersion of similarity coefficients of the faunas of specific regions (coefficient of multiple correlation is 0.83). Connection with environmental factors and natural regimes may explain 83 % of the inhomogeneity of theriofauna (correlation coefficient is 0.91). Comparing the results of zoning carried out over different classes of ground vertebrates we followed substantial similarity of the reasons of faunas inhomogeneity (zonal features, provincial features, heat supply and the integral effect of these factors). Along with this, the differences in tolerance to environment between the considered classes of animals raise during zoning substantial mismatch of the boundaries of assigned taxons and their hierarchy. Because of this, the general concept concerning inhomogeneity of the fauna of ground vertebrata can be achieved only after the joint analysis of their fauna in general.