The structure of the springtail diversity in the southern tundra at different scales of study

In order to better understand the patterns of distribution of microarthropods and their determining factors, we studied the diversity of soil springtails (collembulans) at the levels of the spatial hierarchy of habitats in tundra ecosystems (Bolshezemelskaya tundra). Changes in species diversity (α and β) and the structure of springtail community were analyzed in 96 samples from three microbiotopes (mosses, lichens and mixed samples) of two types of vegetation (shrubby and low bush tundra) using the additive partitioning procedure. α and β diversity were assessed at the level of landscape, tundra type, microbiotope and sample. A total of 65 species were recorded, which is comparable to the richness of the local faunas of the Eastern European tundra. It was shown that factors associated with the type of tundra, microbiotope, and heterogeneity of species distribution at the sample level made a relatively equal contribution to the species diversity of springtails. It was established that the contribution of α- and β-diversity at the level of microbiotopes to the total species richness (γ) can be equivalent, which serves as additional evidence of the need for sampling under different functional groups of plants at different spatial scales. In general, the obtained data indicate that the diversity of collembolans of the southern tundra is characterized as β-dominant at all levels of the landscape hierarchy, which indicates that external factors prevail over internal factors in the formation of collembolan communities.