SPRINGTAILS (COLLEMBOLA) OF THE EASTERN CHUKOTKA PENINSULA: PECULIARITIES OF FAUNA AND ASSEMBLAGES

摘要

A total of 139 collembolan species from 55 genera were found in a patch of coastal tundra near the settlement of Lawrence in the eastern part of Chukotka Peninsula. The local fauna of the region is quite "Beringian" in species composition, but its structure appears to be in full agreement with the known characteristics of southern tundra faunas of other sectors in the Arctic. The specificity of collembolan complexes of the main plant associations in the area in question is not very high because the predominating collembolan species inhabit a wide range of communities, as a rule. The performed study on Collembola fails to confirm the conventional view of a significantly higher diversity of northeastern Palaearctic faunas. Despite the rather southern position of the surveyed coastal tundra, the species richness of its collembolan fauna seems to be the same or only slightly higher than that typical of analogous landscapes in the other Arctic sectors. The apparent discrepancy between a relatively low diversity of Collembola at the local level as shown in the present paper and its rich regional fauna is suggested to be accounted for by an increased differentiation of the Collembola fauna of the region characterized by very complex orography and extremely contrasting climatic conditions.