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Contemporary Problems of Ecology

2022 year, number 1

Spider (Arachnida: Aranei) communities of steppes in mountain-hollows of Southeastern Altai and the Tuva

L. A. Trilikauskas, I. I. Lyubechanskii
Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: caten a, communities, domin ant species, diversity, mountain hollows, Kurai, Chuya, Uvs-Nur, Ulug-Khem

Abstract

The population of spiders in the intermontane depressions of Southeastern Altai and Tuva was studied using a numerical approach. It has been established that the population is very small in number and taxonomically poor. On the catenas of the Chuya Hollow, subarid species predominated, while in the Kurai Hollow, located in the valley of the large Chuya River, polyzonal species predominated. In Tuva, the driest conditions of the catena on the Tannu-Ola ridge (Uvs-Nur depression, western sector) determined the predominance of subarid faunal elements, as in the Chuya depression. For the same reason, these two catenas were distinguished by the largest proportion of representatives of the Central Palaearctic fauna. On the catenas near lakes Khadyn (Ulug-Khem depression) and Tore-Khol (Uvs-Nur depression, eastern sector), where accumulative positions were characterized by high humidity, the share of subboreal humid species was high. Western Palaearctic species predominated on the catenas in the Kurai steppe and near Lake Khadyn. On the catena near Lake Tore-Khol, there is no dominance of species with any one longitudinal type of range. The dynamic density of spiders was usually highest in the lower catena positions. Under extremely arid conditions, at all catena positions in the Chuya and Uvs-Nur (Tannu-Ola) depressions, the maximum dynamic density was noted at the uppermost positions. The spiders belonging to the families Lycosidae and Gnaphosidae are the most numerous and diverse in the population of spiders in the mountain basins of Southeastern Altai and Tuva. In the isolated conditions of individual hollows, specific spider faunas are formed. Only the transit and accumulative positions on the catena in the Kurai depression are similar in terms of population structure.