Ecological Organization of the Spatiotypological Diversity of Amphibian, Reptile, and Small Mammal Communities in the West Siberian Plain

Abstract

Abstract—The West Siberian Plain has been used as an example for the analysis of the differences in the relationships between environmental factors and diversity of amphibian, reptile, and small mammal assemblages. The species abundance and contributions to the Shannon index based on energy parameters have been used as diversity indicators. The diversity of the general concepts of spatiotypological variability has been analyzed for the communities formed by these groups of animals. Analysis of the spatial variability of community diversity yielded similar results and predominantly illustrated the effect of latitudinal differences in heat supply. However, the abundance parameters demonstrated a more distinct correlation with the moisture content (paludification) and the trophicity of the biocenoses (especially bogs) at somewhat lower estimates of the relationship. The hierarchy of the environmental factors identified was the same for both parameters, even though the estimates for the classification and structural modes, as well as the overall information content of the representations, were somewhat higher in the case of a diversity-based arrangement. These differences are most likely due to the uniformity of the log-transformed values used to calculate the Shannon coefficient.