Home – Home – Jornals – Contemporary Problems of Ecology 2015 number 1

Communities of ground-dwelling invertebrates of natural pine forests in and around Yekaterinburg were studied. The two main factors were taken into account while comparing different forest sites: urbanization (mainly air pollution) and recreation (frequency of visits by people). The activity density of the taxa most abundant in specimens and species (ground and rove beetles, spiders and harvestmen) increased in urban forests as compared to the suburban sites. Different taxa experienced different changes in species diversity due to urbanization. Decrease in species richness in the city was accompanied by the increased dominance among arachnids and the decreased dominance among ground beetles. The evenness of the rove beetles’ population structure in the urban sites was the same as in the suburban sites. The impact of recreation on ground-dwelling invertebrates was relatively low as compared to urbanization. The effects of recreation were significant in ground beetles (decreased abundance and species richness under severe impact of recreation) and arachnids (increased abundance).