Altai Water Beetle Species and Habitat Records

42 water bodies in the southeastern Altai region were sampled in 2023 for aquatic beetle species richness. Alexander Prokin collected this data using aquatic net sweeping during summer expeditions. The dataset includes habitat characteristics and a species-samples matrix.

Use Cases

• Analyze relationships between species richness (sp_num) and environmental factors like elevation, waterbody type, or mineralisation (tds).
• Model species presence/absence across 42 sites (V1-V42 columns) using habitat features such as landscape type and surface area (area).
• Identify species clusters and waterbody clusters from association analysis to infer ecological communities.
• Map species distributions using latitude (lat) and longitude (lon) coordinates across alpine, tundra, woodland, and steppe landscapes.

Strengths

• Includes precise geospatial coordinates (lat, lon) and elevation data for 42 sampled sites.
• Contains detailed habitat classifications for waterbody type, landscape, and mineralisation.
• Provides a species-samples matrix linking species binomial names to specific waterbody IDs.

Limitations

• The dataset is small (8.6 KB), indicating a limited sample size likely under 1000 rows.
• Data is confined to a single year (2023) and two specific areas within the Altai Republic.
• Species data is presence-only across 42 sites, lacking abundance measures or temporal replicates.

Provenance

Source

Alexander Prokin, via figshare.

Collection Method

Samples collected by sweeping with an aquatic net during summer 2023 expeditions.

Time Range

July-August 2023.

Freshness

Data collected in 2023, last updated in 2026.

Geography

Upper Chuya River basin and Ukok Plateau in the Republic of Altai, Russia.