Vegetation of the ultramafic mountain massif Rai-Iz (upper reaches of the Enga-Yu River, the Polar Urals, Russia)

Abstract

The syntaxonomic diversity of vegetation in the upper reaches of the Enga-Yu River is described. The specificity of the vegetation in the study area was determined by the ubiquitous occurrence of ultramafic rocks, which contributed to an increase in the harshness of habitats due to the high concentration of heavy metals and the low calcium content. Unfavorable geochemical environments caused the absence of several common in this region species and in the same time the change of ecological preferences and ecological amplitude of other species. Within the lower and middle parts of the alpine belt, we distinguished and described for the first time 4 associations and 2 subassociations. Cladonio rangiferinae–Caricetum arctisibiricae ass. nov. with 2 subassociations (C. r.–C. a. typicum subass. nov., C. r.–C. a. dicranetosum acutifolii subass. nov.) we assigned to the class Loiseleurio procumbentis– Vaccinietea Eggler ex Schubert 1960. Asahineo chrysanthae–Racomitrietum lanuginosi ass. nov. is placed into the class Carici rupestris–Kobresietea bellardii Ohba 1974. Two associations were distinguished as provisional. Tephroserido tundricolae–Bistortetum ellipticae ass. prov. comprising snowbed vegetation, is not assigned yet to any higher unit. Festuco arcticae–Caricetum arctisibiricae ass. prov. comprises meadow communities, it is assigned to the class Juncetea trifidi Hadač in Klika et Hadač 1944 and order Juncetalia trifidi Daniёls 1994. It is not assigned to any alliance due to the shortage of data. The peculiarity of these provisional associations we explain by the influence of ultramafic rocks.

Russian Arctic Vegetation Archive—A new database of plant community composition and environmental conditions

“…A significant part of the Western Siberian dataset (1003 plots) was compiled by team members during the 2017 expedition to the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous district (Sofronova et al, 2019;Telyatnikov et al, 2019aTelyatnikov et al, , 2019bTelyatnikov, Khitun, Chernyadyeva, & Kuzmina, 2021;Telyatnikov, Khitun, Chernyadyeva, Kuzmina, & Ermokhina, 2021;Potemkin et al, 2021), while other datasets were independently contributed by researchers or based on previously published data (Dedov, 1940;Kholod, 2007;Koroleva & Kopeina, 2018, Koroleva et al, 2019Lavrinenko et al, 2016;Lavrinenko & Lavrinenko, 2018a, 2018bMatveyeva, 2006;Matveyeva & Lavrinenko, 2011;Pospelova & Pospelov, 2010;Telyatnikov et al, 2015Telyatnikov et al, , 2022Walker et al, 2019).…”

“…Openaccess data can be freely and directly downloaded from the AVA-RU website as Creative commons 4.0 (https://opend efini tion.org/licen ses/cc-by/), but citation of the data source is required (see above). The AVA-RU data have already been used for a broad range of research including vegetation classification and mapping (Koroleva & Kulyugina, 2015;Lavrinenko & Lavrinenko, 2018a, 2018bLavrinenko, Matveyeva & Lavrinenko, 2016;Matveyeva, 2006;Telyatnikov, Khitun, Chernyadyeva, & Kuzmina, 2021;Telyatnikov, Khitun, Chernyadyeva, Kuzmina, & Ermokhina, 2021;Telyatnikov et al, 2022), species distribution modelling (Ermokhina et al, 2023) and species richness prediction . We also plan the import of the AVA-RU datasets into sPlot (s-Plot, 2023; https://www.idiv.de/en/splot.html).…”