Pleiades Publishing Ltd

Abstract—The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is the largest source of open scientific data on the biodiversity of Russian: over 4.3 million species occurrences became available through GBIF as of May 2020; the most abundant among them are data on vascular plant occurrence (over 1.9 million) and bird occurrence (over 900 thousand). The representativeness of data for other taxonomic groups and most of the regions of the country still remains low, although the amount of available information continues to grow owing to the mobilization of data from scientific collections and personal archives of researchers, as well as from citizen science projects, iNaturalist, and eBird. Data available through the GBIF portal are of great interest to ecologists who work with methods for modeling the spatial distribution of species. However, the existing data gaps for the Russian territory limit the possibilities of their reuse, and it is necessary to address additional sources of information to achieve adequate results.

Laboratory experiments and computer simulations have been performed to study the influence of increased temperatures on the structure of cladoceran communities. Analysis of changes in the rate of population growth and demographic parameters has shown that smaller cladoceran species are less sensitive to decreased concentrations of food at any of the test temperatures (18, 21, and 27°C). An increase in temperature from 18°C to 27°C has been shown to facilitate the establishment of acute competition conditions. At 18°C, periods of food deficiency are shorter, and competition is therefore less manifested than at 27°C. According to the results of computer simulations, alleviation of competition in waters with “low” temperatures results from reduction of the periods of food deficiency because of prolonged juvenile development.

The interaction of man and nature is considered in terms of classical ecology, which is becoming a synthetic systemic science based on a set of other sciences. The divisions of modern human ecology that deal with different organizational levels of ecological systems have been developed to different degrees. Attention is given to the necessity of discrediting the mechanistic concept of opposition between man and nature and taking into account the specific ecological functions of man related to group adaptation (culture), as well as the global role of all living organisms in the maintenance of environmental conditions on Earth.

The investigations on spatial co-occurrence between Myodes (Clethrionomys) glareolus and Apodemus flavicollis conducted on Crabapple Island (NE Poland) in 1994 through 1999 reveal that: single mature females of both species often occur in the same places, whereas local groups of such females rarely cohabit the same place. Mature males of these species always avoid sites occupied by males of the other species. Immature males, however, seem to be mutually indifferent.