The territorial variability of the lichen biota of West Siberia (compared to other communities)

We compiled the classification of lichens and lichenophilic fungi by the distribution similarity and the heterogeneity of their communities for plain and mountain parts of Western Siberia. Three supra-types of species distribution (tundra, forest, steppe)and eight supra-types of their communities were revealed. The first of them included the lychenobiotas of high-mountain meadows, tundra, shrubs, the second – those of woodlands, forests (except for steppe), meadows and marshes among them (except for forest meadows and forest-steppe marshes). The lychenobiotas of mountain forest meadows were attributed to the third supra-type; those of meadow steppes and pine forests within their boundaries – to the fourth one; those of secondary small-crowned steppes – to the fifth one; those of mostly real steppes – to the sixth one; those of forest-steppe marshes – to the seventh one and those of halophytic communities – to the eighth one. The main trends of lichenobiota variability correlate with zonal and altitude heat supply, afforestation, aridization, bogginess and salinity. The general (multiple) evaluation of the relationship with the identified environmental factors takes into account 75 % of the matrix variance of similarity coefficients of communities for 61 biotopes. Together with the natural regimes (inseparable combinations of factors) the proportion of explained variance reaches 90 % (multiple correlation coefficient is 0.95). The heterogeneity of lichenobiota is compared with the communities of amphibians, reptiles, birds and small mammals throughout Western Siberia. The similar comparison with the differentiation of ecosystems on the plant biomass, soil humus, mort- and underground phytomass and the population structure of terrestrial invertebrates and vertebrates, as well as with the general classification of ecosystems by all the mentioned indicators was carried out separately for the West Siberian plain covering 93 % of the total area of West Siberia.