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Lichens in the Polar Deserts of the Northern Tip of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago

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For the polar deserts of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the analysis of the dependence of the distribution of lichens on altitude above sea level, exposure by cardinal direction, the granulometric composition of soils, morphometric parameters of structural soils, the cover values of bryophytes and the total cover of cushion forms of plants and lichens was carried out. Based on 157 sample plots, nine lichenocenotypes (lichen community formed in a specific type of habitat) were identified. It is shown that with increasing height (during the transition from zonal to orozonal positions), the cover and the number of lichen species decrease. The cover of lichens also decreases with an increase in the cover of mosses. With an increase in the content of a fraction in soils of more than 0.125 mm, the species diversity and the cover of lichens increases. A total of 84 lichen species were identified, of which Thamnolia vermicularis s. l. is classified as the most active, nine are highly active, 11—medium-active, the rest are little active and inactive. The current pattern of lichen distribution in the landscape of the far North of Novaya Zemlya is largely due to historical reasons―the youth of the landscape, recently freed from the ice cover, an exceptionally high degree of mobility of the cover of loose Quaternary deposits.

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Notes

  1. Hereinafter, the height above sea level, m, is indicated.

  2. Such soils with a mixture of different fractions are a consequence of active cryolithogenesis typical of the polar regions of the Earth; in literature, they are referred to as diamictone (Washburn, 1988).

  3. The present work was not aimed at revealing the complete species composition of lichens, as was determined by setting the task of field research: geobotanical survey of the territory and, in addition, by impossibility of encompassing uniformly the communities of all types of habitats by the sample plots.

  4. Habitat is defined as a homogenous formation, but this homogeneity implies a certain degree of heterogeneity, in contrast to complete homogeneity, which is referred to as homotony in literature (Vasilevich, 1983).

  5. The conversion of the cover of lichens into points is used in the Table 1 of species activity and in the text in the respective characterization of lichenocenotypes. At the same time, the values of cover of individual species in percentage are also used in the text, which makes description more informative. Point 1 (<1%) is given to all species, the cover of which was assessed under field conditions using symbol “+.”

  6. Similar sequence of slope exposures characterizing the moisture gradient is presented in the work of Whittaker (Whittaker, 1980): NE–N–NW–E–W–SE–S–SW (by the increase in dryness). In our work, we have used a similar sequence for the gradient of heat supply, assuming that these two gradients duplicate each other on open slopes of polar deserts. On our scale, the first two members of this series, NE and N, are rearranged, because northern (but not northeastern) slopes on the extreme north of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago are the coldest, which is due to extremely intensive northerly (cold) winds both in summer and in winter.

  7. Similar endings of the words for denoting the species belonging to a particular ecological group were proposed by A.A. Nitsenko in 1963 (Ipatov and Kirikova, 1997).

  8. The lowest value of coefficient R2 in the dependences that we have obtained is 0.3466, which was conditionally taken as the lower threshold relative to the significant value.

  9. The Latin names of lichens and mosses are given according to: The lichen…, 2010, and Ignatov et al., 2006, respectively.

  10. Orozonal positions are the habitats with all parameters corresponding to the zonal habitats but on different altitudinal levels compared to zonal proper.

  11. Bryophytes include mosses and liverworts. In the respective sections of the text, only the names of mosses are given, because this group is absolutely predominant among bryophytes.

  12. Humidity is a complex factor, which includes both the level of moisture per se (the level of water supply to vegetation) and its variability. The latter, according to Ramenskiy, “is a necessary development and corrective of the concept of humidity” (Ramenskiy, 1971: 171).

  13. Hereinafter, the species of ecological groups are enumerated with respect to increasing Xj.

  14. Three species with the optimum in this part of the scale ― Rusavskia elegans, Sphaerophorus globosus, Umbilicaria cylindrica―have distributions with the optimum not exceeding the coverage values of 2%; they were not included in the Figure not to overburden the image in the lower part of the diagram.

  15. The categories of “mesochionotopes,” “macrochionotopes,” etc. have relative values in the present work, because they characterize only the conditions of snow accumulation in a given area and do not correlate with such categories established for other regions of the Arctic. In polar deserts, the effect of macrochionicity can be achieved not only (and not so much) by the high thickness of snow but also by the long period of its melting at a relatively low thickness. Nivality is a complex factor composed of two simpler factors: snow thickness and time of snow melting.

  16. The species Sphaerophorus globosus, Arctocetraria nigricascens, Umbilicaria cylindrica, Rusavskia elegans, Lepraria gelida were not included in Fig. 15.

  17. The growth of mosses in the marginal parts of seaside and valleyside terraces is associated with the intensive nitrogen press undergone by these habitats under the influence of the flocks of sea birds in the premigratory period.

  18. The exception may be some species of the genus Peltigera, which in the arctic tundras of the Wrangel Island are constantly found in the thickets of the shrubs Salix lanata subsp. richardsonii. It seems that the emergence of species of this genus of lichens is associated with their gravitation toward macrochionic sites: snow accumulation under the canopy of shrubbery (on the Wrangel Island) and the relatively long period of snow melting on the moss covers of Novaya Zemlya Island.

  19. The cause of intensive water filtration is as follows: the high thickness of snow prevents the upper soil layers from severe freezing. As a consequence, the crushed stone–loamy mass remains unfrozen under a thick snow cover: meltwater penetrates rather deeply and therefore does not cause the effect of intensive moistening of soil surface.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to S.V. Chesnokov, a researcher of the Laboratory of Lichenology and Bryology of the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, for preparing the map. The authors are grateful to the reviewers of the Botanical Journal, who contributed to improving the quality of the article.

Funding

The work was performed as part of the state task according to the thematic plant of the Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the topic “Vegetation of European Russian and Northern Asia: Diversity, Dynamics, Principles of Organization” (121032500047-1) and N.A. Avrorin Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the subject “Flora of Lichens, Cyanoprokaryotes, Bryophytes and Vascular Plants of the European Arctic and Sub-Arctic” (1021071612832-8-1.6.11). The work of L.A. Konoreva was partly supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-05-60093.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Komarov Botanical Institute of RAS, 197376, St. Petersburg, Russia

    S. S. Kholod & L. A. Konoreva

  2. Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden and Institute KSC RAS, 184256, Kirovsk, Russia

    L. A. Konoreva

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  1. S. S. Kholod
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Correspondence to S. S. Kholod or L. A. Konoreva.

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Translated by E. V. Makeeva

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Kholod, S.S., Konoreva, L.A. Lichens in the Polar Deserts of the Northern Tip of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago. Dokl Biol Sci 506, 212–238 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0012496622050052

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