Current and past climate co-shape community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic.

The Arctic ecosystems and their species are exposed to amplified climate warming and, in some regions, to rapidly developing economic activities. This study assesses, models, and maps the geographic patterns of community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic and estimates the relative impact of environmental and anthropogenic factors driving these patterns. With our study, we aim at contributing toward conservation efforts for Arctic plant diversity in the Western Siberian Arctic.

The High-Low Arctic boundary: How is it determined and where is it located?

Geobotanical subdivision of landcover is a baseline for many studies. The High-Low Arctic boundary is considered to be of fundamental natural importance. The wide application of different delimitation schemes in various ecological studies and climatic scenarios raises the following questions: (i) What are the common criteria to define the High and Low Arctic? (ii) Could human impact significantly change the distribution of the delimitation criteria? (iii) Is the widely accepted temperature criterion still relevant given ongoing climate change? and (iv) Could we locate the High-Low Arctic boundary by mapping these criteria derived from modern open remote sensing and climatic data? Researchers rely on common criteria for geobotanical delimitation of the Arctic.

Vegetation on mesic loamy and sandy soils along a 1700-km maritime Eurasia Arctic Transect.

Questions: How do plant communities on zonal loamy vs. sandy soils vary across the full maritime Arctic bioclimate gradient? How are plant communities of these areas related to existing vegetation units of the European Vegetation Classification? What are the main environmental factors controlling transitions of vegetation along the bioclimate gradient?

Location: 1700-km Eurasia Arctic Transect (EAT), Yamal Peninsula and Franz Josef Land (FJL), Russia.

Methods: The Braun-Blanquet approach was used to sample mesic loamy and sandy plots on 14 total study sites at six locations, one in each of the five Arctic bioclimate subzones and the forest-tundra transition.

Interactive effects between plant functional types and soil factors on tundra species diversity and community composition.

Plant communities are coupled with abiotic factors, as species diversity and community composition both respond to and influence climate and soil characteristics. Interactions between vegetation and abiotic factors depend on plant functional types (PFT) as different growth forms will have differential responses to and effects on site characteristics. However, despite the importance of different PFT for community assembly and ecosystem functioning, research has mainly focused on vascular plants.