Oribatid mite diversity was investigated in the most understudied region of Georgian South-Eastern Caucasus – open arid ecosystems, which are under heavy natural and anthropogenic disturbance. Field sampling was performed in three geographical units and in each unit three types of ecosystems with different disturbance classes were studied: (1) Arable lands with severe (ASE) and moderate (AME) erosion; (2) Pastures with heavy (PH) and moderate (PM) overgrazing; (3) Natural grassland with severe (NSE), medium (NME) and no (N) erosion. Eighty species of oribatid mites were identified in total. Total raw richness of species was highest in natural grassland (68 species), followed by arable lands with medium erosion (50 species), natural grassland with medium erosion (44 species), pastures with medium erosion (41 species), overgrazed pastures (36 species), arable lands with severe erosion (35) and grassland with severe erosion (31 species). Non-parametric estimation of species richness showed 80 % of per-site sampling completeness on average. Similar to species richness, average individual density was also highest in natural sites (5500 in./m²) and lowest – in grassland with severe erosion (500 in./m²). Indicator Species Analyses (ISA) and regression analyses showed that the natural undisturbed sites displayed largest number of potential indicator species most of which are absent from disturbed sites. Natural grasslands are characterized by on average seven species (Ceratoppia quadridentata (Haller, 1882), Eremulus flagellifer Berlese, 1908, Oribatella berlesei (Michael, 1898), Oribatula interrupta (Willmann, 1939), Xenillus tegeocranus (Hermann, 1804), Metabelba papillipes (Nicolet, 1855), Striatoppia weigmanni Murvanidze & Behan-Pelletier, 2011) with high indicator value (i.e. specificity >0.9) irrespective the sampling season. No other oribatid species were found to be good indicators of other disturbance classes.

在格鲁吉亚东南高加索地区研究最少的地区——开放干旱的生态系统，受到严重的自然和人为干扰，对 Oribatid 螨的多样性进行了调查。在三个地理单元中进行了实地采样，在每个单元中研究了三种不同干扰等级的生态系统：(1) 严重 (ASE) 和中度 (AME) 侵蚀的耕地；(2) 重度（PH）和中度（PM）过度放牧的牧场；(3) 严重（NSE）、中等（NME）和无（N）侵蚀的天然草地。共鉴定出八十种目螨。物种总原始丰富度以天然草地最高（68种），其次是中度侵蚀耕地（50种）、中度侵蚀天然草地（44种）、中度侵蚀牧场（41种），过度放牧的牧场（36 种）、严重侵蚀的耕地（35 种）和严重侵蚀的草地（31 种）。物种丰富度的非参数估计显示平均每个站点采样完整性的 80%。与物种丰富度类似，自然地点的平均个体密度也最高（5500 in./m² ) 和最低 - 在严重侵蚀的草地 (500 in./m ² )。指示物种分析 (ISA) 和回归分析表明，自然未受干扰的地点显示出数量最多的潜在指示物种，其中大部分是受干扰的地点不存在的。平均七种（天然草原的特点是Ceratoppia quadridentata（哈勒，1882年），Eremulus flagellifer螨属，1908年，Oribatella berlesei（迈克尔，1898年），Oribatula interrupta（Willmann，1939年），Xenillus tegeocranus（赫尔曼，1804），Metabelba papillipes (Nicolet, 1855), Striatoppia weigmanniMurvanidze & Behan-Pelletier, 2011) 具有高指标值（即特异性 >0.9），而与采样季节无关。没有发现其他 oribatid 物种是其他干扰类别的良好指标。