Ground beetle communities (Coleoptera, Carabidae) in the Oka basin (the Eastern Sayan)

In the article we have studied the structure of 50 communities of ground beetles in the Oka basin (Oka plateau, the Eastern Sayan). As a result of the classification, 3 types and 18 variants of ground beetle communities were identified. The communities of ground beetles of the upper and lower belts of the mountain exposition forest steppe (6-7 variants each) turned out to be the most diverse in typological terms, the communities of mountain taiga ground beetles (5 variants) are less diverse. An analysis of the structure of ground beetle communities in terms of species composition, abundance, dominance structure, spectra of biotopic, trophic, tiered groups, and diversity indices made it possible to distinguish two groups of communities. The first group includes communities of ground beetles in larch forests, mountain steppes and meadows. The species composition of this group is formed by stenotopic species of ground beetles, it is noted the high species richness, uniform structure of abundance and dominance, low indicators of individual species dominance, presence of dominants, subdominants, rare and single species. The second group includes communities of ground beetles in the mountain forest steppe (= ubur), which are confined to small biotopes in the mountains and anthropogenically altered landscapes in the valleys. The species composition of these communities is composed of flexible species from adjacent steppe and forest biotopes. We have revealed low indices of diversity and uniformity, high indices of dominance of individual species to a level of superdominants, and disappearance of subdominants in these communities.