Зоологический журнал

ZOOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMITIVE SOILS IN DRAINED ZONES OF SALT LAKES IN SOUTH SIBERIA

Mordkovich V.G.

The initial stages of the succession in the drained zones of Siberian lakes proceed at a tremendous rate. The density of animal population, its, systematic composition and the character of its influence on soil drastically change during one season. Communities of different age arise on the territory gradually freed from water during one season. Amphi-bionts-saprophaga occurring in the lake residues predominate at the water edge. The terrestrial fossorial insects predominate in the drained zone remote from the water. They aerate the lifeless saline soil thus promoting to the development of plant cover. Inequal effects of fossorial insects on different regions of the drained zone serve as a basis for microcomplexes of soil-plant cover. There are many common systematic, morphological, aut- and synecological features of the population of drained zones in salt lakes of remote regions of Siberia and outer seas. This is due to past connections between basins and conservative levelling effect of overmoistening, periodic inundation and salinization. Re¬gional differences appear only at the last stages of saline soil development in drained zones.