Fauna and distribution of spiders (Aranei) of the arctic tundra in northern Yamal Peninsula, Russia

Abstract

Of them, the Yamal records of the three latest species represent the westernmost limit of their known distribution. In terms of regional composition, the spider fauna of northern Yamal is indeed Siberian, which sets it apart from the fauna of southern Yamal containing significantly more European elements. In zonal terms, the araneofauna of northern Yamal has an arctic appearance and contains only two polyzonal elements, with the rest of species displaying arctic, arcto-alpine or arcto-boreal distributional patterns. Despite the most pessimal environmental conditions, the zonal tundra communities yield a comparable number of species to that of intrazonal biotopes which are characterized by a significantly smoother gradient of climatic factors. Most species of local, arctic tundra populations are polytopic or eurytopic, i.e. the species inhabiting the entire landscape profile and all/most of the vegetation types, showing no preference to a specific landscape element or a plant community. Only two species could be characterized as typical zonal elements: arctic Halorates spetsbergensis (Thorell, 1872) and Xysticus albidus Grese, 1909; and five species as typical intrazonal elements:

Spiders (Aranei) of the Belyaka Spit, Chukotka: peculiarities of the fauna and biotopic distribution

“…The list of collected species is typical for araneofaunas of the northern part of Eurasian tundras. It is very similar to that of such well-studied Arctic regional faunas as Wrangel Island [Khruleva, 2007], the lower reaches of the Lena River [Tanasevitch, Nekhaeva, 2016], the northern Yamal [Tanasevitch, Rybalov, 2015], the Yugorsky Peninsula [Tanasevitch, Khruleva, 2017]. Usually, the species-lists contain at least 12-14 common species.…”

“…Preference of such stations is especially characteristic for Erigone arctica sibirica, Halorates holmgreni and H. spetsbergensis, the species, which form the core of the spider assemblages in the Belyaka Spit beaches. In other regions of the Arctic these species occur both on the sea coasts and in the interior, mainland regions, where they show very high abundance in some places in river floodplains, less often on gravelly slopes with sparse vegetation, see Khruleva [1987Khruleva [ , 1991, Khruleva & Berezin [2002], Tanasevitch & Rybalov [2015], Tanasevitch & Nekhaeva [2016], Tanasevitch & Khruleva [2017].…”

Spiders (Aranei) of the Kharaulakh Mountains and the Lena River lower reaches, northern Yakutia, Russia

“…The scheme proposed by Yuri I. Chernov [1978] for classifying plant communities of the Arctic has been used for the analysis of zonal-landscape distribution of tundra spiders. Based on this classification, there are three main zonal-landscape types of plant communities in the tundra: zonal, intrazonal and azonal (for more details, see Tanasevitch & Koponen [2007]; Tanasevitch & Rybalov [2015]. Brief descriptions are given below for these types of vegetation in tundra in the vicinities of Tyylaakh and Tiksi.…”

New records of spiders (Aranei) from the Russian Arctic

“…The patterns of spider distribution (range) also consider the data contained in the recent publications by Marusik et al [2016], Tanasevitch & Rybalov [2015] and Tanasevitch & Nekhaeva [2016].…”

“…Recent papers deal with species lists of local faunas or particular areas, with analyses of spider distributions in various landscape and vegetation types [e.g. Marusik et al, 2016;Tanasevitch, Koponen, 2007;Tanasevitch, Rybalov, 2010, 2015Tanasevitch, Nekhaeva 2016;etc.]. Extensive information and accurate labeling accompanying the records is often very important for analyzing spider distributions in natural zones or subzones.…”