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This paper presents results of comprehensive studies of saline rivers in the arid Elton Lake region based on hydrobiological surveys of planktonic and bottom communities. Two tables representing the species structure of communities and produced on the basis of survey data collected on 13 river sites in 2013 and 2018, including data on the abundance of hydrobionts belonging to 94 different taxonomic groups of macrozoobenthos, meiobenthos, and zooplankton, have been compared. The co-inertia analysis has identified a high statistical consistency of the data matrices determined by objective spatial distribution patterns of aquatic organisms. A randomization test was applied to the Procrustean correlation coefficient, and it showed that the conjugacy of the two species structures in the space of latent variables is statistically significant (p = 0.00026). Concurrently, a change trend was noted for the taxonomic composition of some surveyed communities affected by dynamic abiotic factors. The relationship between the taxonomic structure of hydrobionts and the combination of 30 abiotic environmental factors measured in the course of the hydrobiological and hydrochemical monitoring of the studied river sites was analyzed. Using canonical correlation analysis and the technique of projection to latent structures, a complex of ordination diagrams has been produced permitting the identification of specific "environmental niches" for each species group, including certain sets of biotope characteristics. A significant mutual correlation between the planktonic and bottom communities has been established. This correlation indicates close interrelations between these communities determined both by biotic interactions and by mutually consistent reactions to changes in aquatic environmental factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract—A comparative analysis of the variability of the species structure of macrozoobenthos communities in small and medium rivers of the Middle and Lower Volga river basin has been carried out. The statistically significant influence of the natural climatic zone, where the watercourse is located, and manifestation of the latitudinal gradient of biodiversity are shown. A list of indicator species has been made for each geographical zone identified using different criteria of biotopical distribution. Based on the analysis, the indicator value (IndVal) index, which takes into account the zonal distribution of both the occurrence frequencies of a species and its abundance ratios, was recognized as the most adequate. Association rules that contain combinations of species that most frequently occur together in hydrobiological tests have been formulated using the Apriory algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]