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Oribatid Mites as Inhabitants of Lichens in the Taiga Zone of Northeastern Europe: Biotopic Association and Ecological Groups of Species

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Abstract

The ground (Cladina arbuscula, C. rangiferina, C. stellaris, Cetraria islandica) and epiphytic (Hypogymnia physodes and Bryoria subcana) lichens in taiga forests of the European Northeast were examined as habitats of oribatid mites. In total, in different species of lichens, 55 species of oribatids from 30 families were found. Five ecological groups of oribatid mites as inhabitants of lichens were identified. It was found that the specificity of the oribatid mite population in epiphytic lichens consisted of dominant arboricolic species also not numerous arboricolic species. Dominant hemiedaphic species and not numerous hemiedaphic species were characteristic of ground lichens. The arboricolic‒hemiedaphic group includes species that live in both ground and epiphytic lichens. The ecologically vicariating species in relation to epiphytes were identified; these are species of the genera Carabodes, Mycobates, Oribatula, and Phauloppia.

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Funding

This work was carried out according to a State Assignment of the Institute of Biology, Komi Federal Research Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, project no. AAAA-A17-117112850235-2, and supported in part by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-29-05028 mk.

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  1. Institute of Biology, Komi Scientific Center, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 167982, Syktyvkar, Russia

    E. N. Melekhina

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Correspondence to E. N. Melekhina.

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Translated by N. Smolina

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Melekhina, E.N. Oribatid Mites as Inhabitants of Lichens in the Taiga Zone of Northeastern Europe: Biotopic Association and Ecological Groups of Species. Biol Bull Russ Acad Sci 47, 522–534 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1062359020050064

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