Plant co-existence patterns and High-Arctic vegetation composition in three common plant communities in north-east Greenland

Polar research

Aaron Pérez-Haase²  Josep M. Ninot²  Oriol Grau³  Terry V. Callaghan⁴ 

[1] Department of Animal and Plant SciencesUniversity of Sheffield, S10 2TN Sheffield, UK;Department of Plant Biology and Institute for Research on BiodiversityUniversity of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, ES-08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain;Department of Plant Biology and Institute for Research on BiodiversityUniversity of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, ES-08028 Barcelona, Catalonia, SpainCorrespondence;Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesLilla Frescativägen 4A,SE-114 18, Stockholm, Sweden

关键词: Abiotic stress;    Arctic vegetation;    co-existence patterns;    plant community;    species richness;   

DOI  :  10.3402/polar.v33.19235

学科分类：自然科学（综合）

来源: Co-Action Publishing

【 摘 要 】

Arctic regions are expected to experience substantial changes in climate in the coming decades. In order to predict potential changes of Arctic vegetation, it is important to understand the distinct role of life forms of plants and of individual species in relation to plant co-existence patterns. Our aim is to investigate if three common Arctic plant patch types dominated by contrasting life forms (by the dwarf shrubs Salix arctica or Dryas octopetala×intermedia or by mosses) are related (a) to the co-existence of vascular plants and species richness at patch scale and (b) to the floristic composition in three distinct plant communities (Salix snowbed, Dryas heath and fell-field) associated with contrasting abiotic regimes. The study was conducted at Zackenberg, in north-east Greenland. Dryas patches showed a clear negative effect on small-scale plant richness and co-existence in the fell-field. Salix and moss patches showed a similar pattern in all the plant communities, although the number of individual...

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC