Resource allocation strategies are described for a range of vascular plant species of a high-arctic lowland oasis, located adjacent to Alexandra Fjord, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T. The patterns of allocation of biomass and major nutrients (N, P, K, Ca, and Mg) differed greatly among the 16 species, which represented six growth forms (biennial herbs, perennial herbs, graminoids, cushion plants, deciduous dwarf shrubs, and evergreen dwarf shrubs). The dominant growth strategy was that of the stress tolerator, well adapted to cold, dry, and exposed situations. This strategy is characterized by low annual net production, a small proportion of resources allocated belowground, a large proportion of resources allocated to the attached litter compartment, and internal nutrient cycling. Ruderal growth strategies were evident in such species as Cochlearia fenestrata and Draba groenlandica, which occupied disturbed habitats. These species had a large proportion of resources allocated to sexual reproductive tissues. Perennial herbs exhibited intermediate strategies, and they occupied a wide range of habitats.

During the growing season of 1981, we studied phenological patterns of development of vegetative shoots and sexual organs, partitioning of biomass and productivity, and partitioning and concentrations of N, P, K, Ca, and Mg for the evergreen dwarf shrub Cassiope tetragona (Ericaceae) at a high arctic lowland oasis at 79°N on Ellesmere Island, Canada. Short elongation (3.6 mm yr−1) and net production (5% of aboveground phytomass) of Cassiope were small. Vegetative and reproductive development were initialed just after snowmelt. Seasonal patterns of allocation of phytomass and nutrients to current growth were characterized by gradual accumulation of quantity over the growing season. However, concentrations of N, P, and K decreased by ca 50% in current tissues during the growing season, while Ca increased with tissue age. Overwinter storage of nutrients occurred in live aboveground shoots. The large proportion of phytomass that occurred as aboveground, attached dead material, as well as the small net production and belowground standing crop, suggest an allocation pattern more similar to that of high arctic cushion plants, than to other evergreen, ericaceous dwarf shrubs occurring at lower latitudes in the Arctic.