Eur. J. Entomol. 105: 673–680, 2008 http://www.eje.cz/scripts/viewabstract.php?abstract=1384 ISSN 1210-5759 (print), 1802-8829 (online) Orthopteran communities in the conifer-broadleaved woodland zone of the Russian Far East THOMAS FARTMANN, MARTIN BEHRENS and HOLGER LORITZ* University of Münster, Institute of Landscape Ecology, Department of Community Ecology, Robert-Koch-Str. 26, D-48149 Münster, Germany; e-mail:
[email protected] Key words. Orthoptera, cricket, grasshopper, community ecology, disturbance, grassland, woodland zone, Lazovsky Reserve, Russian Far East, habitat heterogeneity, habitat specifity, Palaearctic Abstract. We investigate orthopteran communities in the natural landscape of the Russian Far East and compare the habitat require- ments of the species with those of the same or closely related species found in the largely agricultural landscape of central Europe. The study area is the 1,200 km2 Lazovsky State Nature Reserve (Primorsky region, southern Russian Far East) 200 km east of Vladi- vostok in the southern spurs of the Sikhote-Alin Mountains (134°E/43°N). The abundance of Orthoptera was recorded in August and September 2001 based on the number present in 20 randomly placed 1 m² quadrates per site. For each plot (i) the number of species of Orthoptera, (ii) absolute species abundance and (iii) fifteen environmental parameters characterising habitat structure and micro- climate were recorded. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used first to determine whether the Orthoptera occur in ecol- ogically coherent groups, and second, to assess their association with habitat characteristics. In addition, the number of species and individuals in natural and semi-natural habitats were compared using a t test.