Arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones) of Mountain Summits of the South Urals
Citation
Mikhailov Y, Ermakov A, Esyunin S, Sozontov A (2024). Arachnids (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones) of Mountain Summits of the South Urals. Version 1.1. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE). Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/56esv5 accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-10-14.Description
The dataset contains data on the occurrence (734 records) of arachnids – spiders and harvestmen (Arachnida: Araneae, Opiliones) of the South Urals. Main material comes from purposeful collection in four mountain summits Dal’niy Taganai, Bol’shoi Nurgush, Malyi Iremel and Bol’shoi Iremel. All summits are the permanent monitoring sites of the international research network GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments) and are situated in the protected areas of the South Urals (Russia), respectively national parks Taganai and Zyuratkul in Chelyabinsk region and nature park Iremel in the Republic of Bashkortostan. The collecting was carried out in 2008, 2015–2016 and 2022–2023 by soil traps established on permanent sampling plots. Additional occurrences come from miscellaneous collections across South Urals mountains during 1980¬–2013. The dataset consists of 3126 specimen belonging to 154 species, 88 genera and 17 families.Sampling Description
Study Extent
The herpetobiont invertebrate communities were investigated in four mountain summits of the South Urals: Dal’niy Taganai (1109 m a.s.l.), Bolshoi Nurgush (1413 m a.s.l.), Malyi (Small) Iremel (1437 m a.s.l.) and Bolshoi (Big) Iremel (1565 m a.s.l.) (Fig 3). All of them are monitoring sites of the respective target region – South Urals (=SUR) of the international research network GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments). GLORIA network was founded in Vienna in 2000 to operate and coordinate the worldwide long-term observation network for the comparative study of climate change impacts on alpine biota (mainly plants) and its biodiversity (Grabherr et al., 2000). The first permanent plots were established in the year 2001 at 66 summits in 17 mountain regions of Europe including the South Urals (Pauli et al., 2012) and resurveyed in 2008, 2015 and 2022. All the summits reach the alpine life zone and have plateaus covered with alpine tundra vegetation. The summit plateaus of Bolshoi Nurgush, Malyi Iremel and Bolshoi Iremel has the same type of alpine tundra – grass-moss tundra (Carex-Rhytidium) with stone hollows and clay patches. The summit plateau of Dal’niy Taganai is covered with shrub-lichen tundra except the eastern sector with tundra-like shrubby communities. All the summits are situated in the floristic region of dark coniferous forests and tundra of upper mountain belt of the South Urals that consist of two sub-regions isolated by the valley of Ai River (Kulikov, 2005). The vegetation of mountain forests is similar throughout the region but the alpine vegetation is different in two sub-regions and supports this division. Taganai sub-region is situated at the main watershed of the Urals in the sources of the rivers Ufa, Kusa and Bolshoi Kialim and includes the mountain ranges of Big and Small Taganai, Itsyl and Yurma. The highest summit is Kruglitsa (1178 m a.s.l.). The alpine tundra vegetation is present at the Big Taganai mountain range (summits Kruglitsa, Otkliknoy Greben’ and Dal’niy Taganai) and Yurma Mountain (Kulikov, 2005). Flora and vegetation of alpine tundra of the Taganai mountain range is considered to be relatively poor in species diversity and different from the rest of the Southern Urals highlands. The shrub-lichen type of alpine tundra is common here with the dominance of Vaccinium uliginosum, V. vitis-idaea, Empetrum hermaphroditum in grass layer, and species of Cladina and Cetraria in moss-lichen layer. Festuca igoschiniae as the most peculiar dominant of grass-moss tundra of the South Urals is very rare here and is mainly replaced by F. ovina that does not occur in other regions of the South Urals. Tundra plant communities with the dominance of Juncus trifidus are also quite common. The tundra-like shrub communities with Empetrum hermaphroditum and Vaccinium uliginosum and communities with a predominance of forest species (e.g. Maianthemum bifolium) are widespread. This can be explained by the repeated reduction of the alpine vegetation area in the mountains during the warmer phases of the Holocene (Kulikov, 2005). Zyuratkul-Iremel’ subregion is situated in the upper parts of the rivers Yuryuzan, Katav, Satka and Ai and occupies the system of mountain ranges built from Proterozoic quartzite and crystalloid slates (Uren’ga, Zyuratkul, Nurgush, Zigalga ranges, Iremel massif). Here the grass-moss tundra is common with the dominant species Festuca igoschiniae, Carex ensifolia and Rhytidium rugosum. Rarely the small patches of tundra vegetation from Dryas octopetala and Arctous alpina also can be found (Kulikov, 2005). Design Description The South Urals as a GLORIA target region comprises a suite of four summits which represent an elevation gradient from the natural treeline ecotone up to the uppermost vegetation zone. A target region (SUR) is the mountain area in which these four summits are located. All summits of a target region must be exposed to the same regional climate, where climatic differences are caused by elevation rather than by topographically determined weather divide effects. The ideal altitudinal positions of the four summits would be within the ecotones that form the transition between vegetation belts, because climate-induced changes are most likely to become first apparent in these transition zones (Pauli et al., 2015). The four summits for the South Urals as a GLORIA target region were chosen with the direct supervision of GLORIA coordinators in 2001. The sampling design for each summit provides the delimitation of four sections in the upper summit area (5-m summit area) and four sections in the lower summit area (10-m summit area). The size of the summit area section is not fixed but depends on the slope structure and steepness. For investigation of herpetobiont invertebrates (insects, arachnids, centipedes) the pitfall traps were established in each of four sampling areas (usually lower summit area sections) connected with cardinal directions (N, E, S, W) of every summit. The installation of pitfall traps was carried out according to the protocol included in the fifth edition of the official manual (section 7.2) of GLORIA project for extra approaches (Pauli et al., 2015). The sampling design for GLORIA summits was proposed by Mikhailov (2009) and later on included in the official manual (Mikhailov, 2015). In the South Urals he first results using this method were obtained in 2008, and the first resurvey was carried out in 2015. The results for insects and spiders after two surveys (2008 and 2015) were published (Mikhailov & Ermakov, 2016). However, in July 2015, before the survey period in Dalniy Taganay, the weather was cool and rainy, unfavourable for invertebrate activity, so the surveys there were repeated in 2016 during the better weather. A second resurvey in Dalniy Taganay was carried out in 2022 (22-25 June), but unusually cold weather in June resulted in poor sampling. To confirm the results, the survey was repeated on 6-9 July 2023. In 2023 another peak of the Big Taganay ridge was surveyed simultaneously (5-8 July) - Kruglitsa (1144 m above sea level). The first data on this peak were obtained in 2016. Like Dalniy Taganay it is one of the northernmost peaks in the Southern Urals where mountain tundra has been preserved.Sampling
In each sector 20 standard 75 mm diameter plastic cups were installed in a cross-shaped line, i.e. 10 traps were placed along the main line (north, south, west and east) at least 1 m apart, and another 10 traps were placed perpendicular to the first line. After three days, the lines were removed and the contents of the traps from each line were placed in specially marked containers. A preliminary sorting of adults and larvae of insects, arachnids and centipedes was carried out in the field. The analysis and identification of the collected material was later carried out in the laboratory. Additional miscellaneous materials were collected by all arachnological field method: entomological net sweeping, litter sifting, trees shaking and manual collecting along with pitfall-traps.Quality Control
The collection is stored in the Perm State University (PSU). A few specimens are stored in the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.-Petersburg (ZIN). Esyunin S.L. has identified all the adult individuals to the species level. Juvenile individuals were identified to the species, genera or family level depending on informative value of somatic features (body size, shape and coloration, eyes configuration, chaetotaxy etc.). The taxonomical nomenclature accords the World Spider Catalog (WSC, 2024).Method steps
- 1. Insalling a standard plastic cups (75 mm in diameter) in a cross-shaped lines (20 cups per line);
- 2. Exposing for 3 days and collecting the contents of the traps to a specially marked containers;
- 3. Additionally collecting miscellaneous materials by entomological net sweeping, litter sifting, trees shaking and manual collecting along with pitfall-traps.
Taxonomic Coverages
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Araneaecommon name: spiders rank: order
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Opilionescommon name: harvestmen rank: order
Geographic Coverages
Mountainous parts of Chelyabinsk region and the Republic of Bashkortostan
Bibliographic Citations
- Grabherr G., Gottfried M., Pauli H. GLORIA: A Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments // Mountain Research and Development. 2000. V. 20. P. 190–191. -
- Kulikov P.V. Konspekt flory Chelyabinskoi oblasti (sosudistye rastenia) [Synopsis of flora of Chelyabinsk region (vascular plants)]. Yekaterinburg – Miass: Ilmensky Nature reserve, 2005. 537 p. -
- Mikhailov Yu. E. Invertebrate monitoring at GLORIA target regions: the first results from the Urals and need for global networking // Mountain Forum Bulletin. 2009. V. 9. N 2. P. 44–46. -
- Mikhailov Yu. Е. Invertebrate monitoring on GLORIA summits // The GLORIA field manual – standard Multi-Summit approach, supplementary methods and extra approaches. 5th ed. Vienna, 2015. P. 70–71. -
- Mikhailov Yu. Е., Ermakov A.I. Composition and structure of the herpetobiotic invertebrate communities of the mountain summits of the South Urals // Fauna Urala i Sibiri. 2016. No1. P. 61-74 -
- Pauli H., Gottfried M., Dullinger S., Abdaladze O., Akhalkatsi M., Аlonso J. L.B., Coldea G., Dick J., Erschbamer B., Calzado M. R. F., Ghosn D., Holten J. I., Kanka R., Kazakis G., Kollár J., Larsson P., Moiseev P., Moiseev D., Molau U., Mesa J. M., Nagy L., Pelino G., Puşcaş M., Rossi G., Stanisci A., Syverhuset A.O., Theurillat J.-P., Tomaselli M., Unterluggauer P., Villar L., Vittoz P., Grabherr G. Recent Plant Diversity Changes on Europe's Mountain Summits // Science. 2012. V. 336. P. 353–355. -
- Pauli H., Gottfried, M., Lamprecht A., Niessner S., Rumpf S., Winkler M., Steinbauer K., Grabherr G. (coordinating authors and editors). The GLORIA field manual – standard Multi-Summit approach, supplementary methods and extra approaches. 5th ed. Vienna, 2015. 138 p. https://www.gloria.ac.at/methods/manual -
- WSC (2024). World Spider Catalog. Version 25.0. URL: http://wsc.nmbe.ch, accessed on 01-06-2024. doi: 10.24436/2 -
Contacts
Yuri Mikhailovoriginator
position: professor
Ural Federal University
RU
Aleksander Ermakov
originator
position: senior researcher
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE)
RU
Sergey Esyunin
originator
position: professor
Perm State University
RU
Artem Sozontov
originator
position: senior researcher
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE)
RU
Alexey Nesterkov
point of contact
position: senior researcher
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE)
RU
email: ipt@ipae.uran.ru
Artem Sozontov
administrative point of contact
position: senior researcher
Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (IPAE)
RU