Latitudinal-zonal and altitude-belt aspects of the ecological differentiation of the bird communities of Central Siberia
L. G. Vartapetov1, A. A. Romanov2, E. V. Shemyakin3, M. I. Lyalina1
1Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
3Federal state budgetary institution of science Federal research center "Yakut Scientific Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences", Institute of Biological Problems of Cryolithozone of SB RAS, Yakutsk, Russia
Keywords: bird communities of Central Siberia, total abundance, species richness, predominant species, background species composition, natural zones and subzones, altitude belts
Abstract
The results of a long-term study of the bird population of Central Siberia, including their route surveys with a length of 11.2 thousand km in 685 biotopes, are summarized. It has been established that the population density of birds increases from the Arctic deserts to the southern tundra, decreases markedly in the forest tundra, and then increases sequentially to the forest steppe. The species richness also increases in the southern direction, but reaches its maximum in the middle taiga, where species with a more northern or southern distribution are located on the periphery of their ranges. In the dominant composition of ornithocomplexes, it is characteristic that 1-4 species do not go beyond the boundaries of their “own” zones, and 1-2 species are common to neighboring zones. As a result of changes in the composition and ratio of species, the differences between the ornithocomplexes of the Arctic deserts and tundras, as well as the forest-tundra and taiga zones, become the most significant. Differences in the bird populations of the forest tundra and tundra, as well as the forest-steppe and taiga zones, are poorly expressed due to the distribution of the most widespread species. Altitude-belt changes in the bird population are reduced to a sharp decrease in the number of species and individuals during the transition from each lower to the overlying belt. The bird communities of the high-altitude belts from the foothills to the peaks of the mountains are increasingly different from each other and those of the adjacent lowland zones and subzones, which is determined by the increasing autonomy of their formation.
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