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Relationships between vegetation patterns and periglacial landforms in northwestern Svalbard

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Abstract

We studied the small-scale vegetation pattern in the high Arctic at Ny Ålesund to assess if the plant distribution was related to periglacial landforms. The whole area has been deglaciated for millennia but only a modest part of the area was covered by mature vegetation. The plant cover varied considerably in relation to ground patterning originated by periglacial processes, especially frost heave, frost creep, gelifluction and ice segregation, giving rise to a mosaic of microhabitats sharply differing from each other as regards physical properties and microclimate. The distributional patterns of vascular plants, lichens and bryophytes were primarily affected by complex responses to substrate texture, soil moisture content and substrate disturbance. Since global warming will probably affect both periglacial processes and plant responses to altered habitat conditions, we concluded that long-term monitoring of relationships between landforms and vegetation represents a suitable tool for assessing the impact of global change on arctic regions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor H.M. French and two anonymous referees for critical comments on a previous version of the paper. We thank Mr. Stefano Poli for assistance during the field work. This research was supported by the Italian C.N.R. (Progetto strategico “Artico”, Respons. Ivo Allegrini) and by a grant of Ferrara University to Renato Gerdol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Ambiente e del Territorio, Università Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Nicoletta Cannone

  2. Dipartimento di Biologia Funzionale e Strutturale, Università dell’Insubria, Via J. H. Dunant, 3, 21100, Varese, Italy

    Mauro Guglielmin

  3. Dipartimento delle Risorse Naturali e Culturali, Università di Ferrara, Corso Porta Mare 2, 44100, Ferrara, Italy

    Renato Gerdol

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  1. Nicoletta Cannone
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  2. Mauro Guglielmin
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  3. Renato Gerdol
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Correspondence to Renato Gerdol.

Appendix

Appendix

List of the rare species, not included in the RDA elaboration

Vascular plants

Carex misandra, C. rupestris, Cassiope tetragona, D. arctica, D. subcapitata, E. scirpoides, Pedicularis dasyantha, P. irsuta, P. alpina vivipara, Ranunculus spetsbergensis, R. sulphureus, S. aizoides, S. uralensis, Stellaria crassipes.

Bryophytes

Platydictya jungermannioides, Aneura pinguis, Aplodon wormskioldii, Ceratodon purpureus, D. groenlandicum, Hylocomium splendens, Meesia triquetra, M. uliginosa, Mnium thomsonii, Myurella julacea, O. strictum, Paludella squarrosa, Polytrichum sp., Pseudo-calliergon trifarium, Ptilidium ciliare, Scapania gymnostomophila, Tetraplodon sp., Tortella fragilis, Tritomaria scitula.

Lichens

Biatora subduplex, Caloplaca jungermanniae, C. coccifera, Dacampia hookeri, Flavocetraria nivalis, Fulgensia bracteata, L. hageni, Leciophysma finmarkicum, P. lepidophora, Phaeorrhiza nimbosa.

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Cannone, N., Guglielmin, M. & Gerdol, R. Relationships between vegetation patterns and periglacial landforms in northwestern Svalbard. Polar Biol 27, 562–571 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-004-0622-4

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