UDC

581.9(22+470.21)

Authors

Moseev Dmitry Sergeevich,
Research Center “Viking” (Arkhangelsk, Russia)
e-mail: vikingm@arh.ru
Kryauchunas Vidas Vinanto,
Research Station “Lomonosov” of the Institute of Ecological Problems of the North, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Arkhangelsk, Russia)
e-mail: vidas76@mail.ru
Iglovsky Stanislav Anatolyevich,
Institute of Ecological Problems of the North, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Arkhangelsk, Russia)
e-mail: iglovskys@mail.ru

Abstract

The paper dwells on the performance of the research center «Viking» and the Institute of Ecological Problems of the North participated in the expedition the «Floating University», with the support of the All- Russian public organization «Russian Geographical Society». The expedition took place in June 2013 on Svalbard. Geobotanical researches were conducted in the west of Spitsbergen in the Longyearbyen, Ny-Ålesund, Barentsburg settlements and their vicinities early in the growing season. The biological and ecological characteristics of flora typical for the supralittoral zone (sea spray), including species of plants grown under saline soil, were studied. Few numbers of species of plants communities of the archipelago were found as indicators of the phenological spring baseline. Some of these plants grow mainly in the sea spray area: Salix polaris, Saxifraga oppositifolia, Saxifraga rivularis, Oxyria digina. In connection with the problem of global warming, which is clearly evident in the Arctic, the timescales of the growing season of plants typical for the region are very important for the research of the climate change processes. Consistent pattern in the distribution and species composition of plant communities, depending on the climate of the area is clearly expressed. In the middle of June starts the vegetation of plants, which are under protection from the effects of the storm winds, and mostly manifested near the village of Longyearbyen, at the top of Is-fjord. The growing season in mid-June is not typical for the area of Barentsburg, located at the mouth of Is-fjord.

Keywords

growing season, island flora, Spitsbergen archipelago

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