Сообщества нивальных миксомицетов северо-запада России и Северо-Западного Кавказа

Abstract

Assemblages of nivicolous myxomycetes from two mountain regions: the Khibiny Mts. and Teberda state natural biosphere reserve of North-Western Caucasus, and from two lowland landscapes of North-west of Russia were compared in order to elucidate whether those species are cosmopolite or represented by a cluster of moderately distributed taxa. The comparison was made by a cluster analysis based on the modified similarity index, Cs. The analysis demonstrated very low similarity between the lowland and mountain assemblages of the Khibiny Mts. (Cs = 0.54; 14 common taxa) and Teberda (Cs = 0.52; 11). Within the different vegetation communities the minimum similarity was found between lowland taiga and alpine tundra of the Khibiny Mts. (Cs = 0.47; 7 common taxa), as well as between lowland taiga and alpine meadows of Teberda (Cs = 0.40; 14); the maximum similarity was found for subalpine crooked forests of both mountain regions (Cs = 0.54; 24). These results may point out the affiliation of some nivicolous species to mountain regions due to the optimum conditions there. The analysis of dominant species distribution lets us consider only D. meyerae, L. ovoideum, Ph. alpestre and Ph. vernum to be ‘true alpine’ species whereas the rest taxa have probably much wider distribution to be claimed cosmopolite. A further investigation using ePCR method is needed for better understanding of species distribution of nivicolous myxomycetes assemblages.