ФИТОИНДИКАЦИОННОЕ ОЦЕНИВАНИЕ КАТЕНЫ СООБЩЕСТВ ПОЧВЕННОЙ МЕЗОФАУНЫ И ИХ ЭКОМОРФИЧЕСКАЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ
Authors: Zhukov A. V. , Kunah O. N. , Novikova V. A. , Ganzha D. S. 
Published: January 2017

The approaches to the use of catena method of studying the diversity of soil animal communities’ arena landscape of the Dnieper River Valley (within the natural reserve “Dnieper-Orelsky” using phytoindication estimation have been developed in the present article. Soil animals ecomorphes have been verified on the basis of main trends variability of environmental conditions which evaluated by means of phytoindication approaches. Monitoring polygon situated in the north-eastern part of the natural reserve "Dnieper-Orelsky". The width of the polygon is 3260 m, height – 2850 m, its total area is 930 hectares. Inside the polygon we selected some five plots: on the slope of the sand dunes at the border the sandy steppe and Acer tataricum shrub; on the slope of the Northern exposure of the Orlova valley in Acer tataricum oak forest with Dáctylis glomeráta; in terrace near the flood plain on the border with the lower part of the slope, in elm-black poplar forest with Glechóma hederácea; in the waterlogged tributary of river Protoch on the border of the marsh and forest ecosystems; in river Protoch in grass community, in a gradient from the marsh community to steppe meadows. Each plot was represented by 105 squares of size 3×3 m. Squares arranged in 7 contiguous rows of 15 squares in each. Plot size was 21×45 m. Big side plot was located along the visually discernible gradient terrain topography and vegetation cover. In each square we made a description of the vegetation with the assessment of the projective cover with a lag of 10%. In the center of each square we sampled soil of 0.25×0.25 m from which the soil macroinvertebrates have been extracted by hand sorting. The ordination of mesopedobionts communities has been applied to multidimensional scaling procedure based on metrics of Bray-Curtis with provisional data on transformation according to Hellinger. The phytoindication estimation of the environmental regimes have been found to be statistically significant predictors of multidimensional scales that obtained after ordination of mesopedobionts communities. Dimension 1 can be explained by edaphotop nutrient status, dimension 2 can be explained by edaphotop humidity, dimension 3 may be explained by soil aeration, dimension 4 may be explained by quantity of carbonates in soil. Dimensions 5 and 6 have a complex factor nature which is difficult to interpret meaningfully. Environmental assessment regimes using phyto-indicative scales enabled set the value of soil carbonate content and aeration in structuring of soil animals communities. The obtained result makes reasonable provision of new ecomorphes of soil animals such as aèromorph and carbonatomorph. Aèromorphes are ecological group that combines soil animals, preferring similar condition of soil aeration, among which are highlighted in aerophyles, sub-aerophyles, hemiaerofobes and subaerofobes. Carbonatomorphes are ecological group that combines soil animals, preferring similar condition of carbonates content in soil, among which are highlighted in carbonatofobes, akarbonatophyles, hemicarbonatophyles, carbonatophyles and hyper-carbonatophyles. Classic catena approach for biogeocenotic and landscape diversity investigation have been supplemented by the assessment of the ecological regimes through phytoindication and ecomorphic analysis of vegetation. Ordinates of ecological regimes are the gradients of variation of soil animal communities. Information and valuable markers of vegetation (phytoindication scale and ecomorphes) can be used as training variables to assess the indicator properties of soil animal communities. Ecomorphes of soil animals reflect the main aspects of the structural organization of their communities and may serve as valuable indicators of the properties and behaviors of soil as environment of living organisms.