Floristic division of the Arctic

Abstract: The progress in the floristic study of the circumpolar Arctic since the 1940s is summarized and a new floristic division of this region is presented. The treeless areas of the North Atlantic and North Pacific with an oceanic climate, absence of permafrost and a very high proportion of boreal taxa are excluded from the Arctic proper. It is argued that the Arctic deserves the status of a floristic region. The tundra zone and some oceanic areas are divided into subzones according to their flora and vegetation. Two groups of subzones are recognized: the Arctic group (including the Arctic tundras proper and the High Arctic) and the Hypoarctic group. The Arctic phytochorion is floristically divided into sectors: 6 provinces and 20 subprovinces reflecting the regional features of each sector in connection with flora history, physiography and continentality-oceanity of the climate. Each sector is described and differentiated by a set of differential and co-differential species. The peculiarities of the Arctic flora are manifest in different ways in the various sectors, and endemism is not the universal criterion for subdivision.     

Taphonomic features of Arctic pollen

The composition of the primary pollen changes during pollen transfer and redistribution over the Earths surface and fossilization. These processes are particularly pronounced in the tundra zone. Patterns of pollen spectra formation in the subaerial and subaqueous deposits of the tundra zone were considered and the differences in the content of palynomorphs with exine rupture were revealed. The changes in the effect of regional and local taphonomic factors on Arctic tundra slopes were traced. Pollen conservation in the deposits of the tundra zone, snowfields, and wedge ice was considered.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk, Seriya Biologicheskaya, No. 2, 2005, pp. 240–252.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Vasilchuk.     

Population Genetic Diversity of Arctic Cod (Boreogadus saida) of Russian Arctic Seas

Journal of Ichthyology - We present the data on genetic variation of Arctic cod Boreogadus saida assessed using seven microsatellite loci in four samples collected in the Kara, Laptev, and...     

Imaging the Arctic.

Imaging the Arctic. J. C. H. King and Henrietta Lidchi. eds. London: British Museum Press, 1998. (Also Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998; Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1998.) 256 pages.