The Flora and Vegetation of Sosnovets Island, the White Sea
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Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 95: 1–35. 2019 ISSN 0373-6873 (print) Helsinki 24 January 2019 ISSN 1796-9816 (online) The flora and vegetation of Sosnovets Island, the White Sea Mikhail N. Kozhin*, Ekaterina O. Golovina, Ekaterina I. Kopeina, Stanislav A. Kutenkov & Alexander N. Sennikov Kozhin, M. N., Department of Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Leninskye Gory 1–12, GSP–1, 119234 Moscow, Russia; & Avrorin Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden and Institute of Kola Scientific Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences, 184250 Kirovsk, Murmansk Region, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] (*Author for correspondence) Golovina, E. O., Laboratory of Vegetation Geography and Mapping, Komarov Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Popov str. 2, 197376 St. Petersburg, Russia. E-mail: [email protected] Kopeina, E. I., Avrorin Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden and Institute of Kola Scientific Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences, 184250 Kirovsk, Murmansk Region, Russia. E-mail: kopeina-e@ yandex.ru Kutenkov, S. A., Institute of Biology of Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushkinskaya str. 11, 185910 Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia. E-mail: effort@krc. karelia.ru Sennikov, A.N., Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 7, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland; & Herbarium, Komarov Botanical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Popov str. 2, 197376 St. Petersburg, Russia. E-mail: alexander.sennikov@ helsinki.fi The flora and vegetation of Sosnovets Island (White Sea Throat, Murmansk Region, Russia) has been studied and described in detail. This is a small island situated within the tundra zone, largely covered by a permafrost peatland with the presence of flarks, a palsa mire, and rock outcrops. Vascular plants of Sosnovets Island include 167 species and subspecies, of which 134 species and subspecies are considered native and 33 species are alien. The number of tundra species is higher and that of boreal species is lower than on the other White Sea islands; a few species with east- ern distributions in East Europe are present; 6 protected species are recorded. Alien species were mostly transported from Arkhangelsk Region but partly from Central Russia; main pathways were forage, construction and gardens; one species (Alchemilla cymatophylla) was likely introduced as a polemochore. The vegetation of Sosnovets Island is represented by a complex of lichen, dwarf- shrub, cottongrass-sphagnous and sedge-sphagnous communities of the peatland, which covers the major part of the island, as well as dwarf-shrub and lichen tundras, coastal vegetation, willow thickets, dwarf cornel (Cornus suecica) and secondary anthropogenic meadows and grasslands. A palsa mire, marshes with Calamagrostis deschampsioides, highly dissected peatlands with cloud- berry-crowberry-lichen communities on elevated sites and cottongrass-sphagnous communities in depressions are the unique features of the island’s vegetation. 2 Kozhin et al. • Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 95, 2019 Introduction Vascular plants of the White Sea islands were included into larger studies in Murmansk Region Insular ecosystems have a certain level of peculi- (Gorodkov 1953–1954; Pojarkova 1956–1966), arity because of their restricted size and isolation, Karelia (Kravchenko 2007) and Arkhangelsk Re- which makes them suitable for testing ideas and gion (Schmidt 2005), although their particular de- principles of ecology and evolution but also leads scriptions and analyses are far from being com- to their vulnerability under climatic changes and prehensive. Nevertheless, there is a long tradition anthropogenic pressure (Drake et al. 2002). The of biodiversity studies of the White Sea, includ- biogeographic context of such studies concerns ing numerous islands along its coasts. species richness and distribution, and also region- Ivan I. Lepekhin was the first naturalist to vis- alization patterns of target study groups. Island it the White Sea islands. In June 1772, upon com- biogeography (MacArthur & Wilson 1967) has pleting his four-year journey across various prov- been developed when the biodiversity of insular inces of the Russian Empire, he visited the So- ecosystems is studied (Haila et al. 1982; Patiño et lovetsky Islands and provided a brief descrip- al. 2017); its results are of special interest when tion of them (Lepekhin 1805). Almost a centu- larger archipelagoes, harbouring many endemic ry thereafter, in 1861, the islands were visited species, are examined (e.g. Bramwell 1976), but by Karl Emil Inberg, an entomologist, and Gus- may also reveal important dependencies when taf Selin, a botanist, as a group of the Finnish ex- smaller and minor insular groups are considered pedition to Russian Lapland supported by Socie- (e.g. Rebassoo 1987). tas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica and the Consisto- 38° 40° 42° k o j l A K L E c o e h e l Tersko-Orlovsky Mayak b r m s ! j L j o a a o z k k i s h i n j a g a s ! Kanevka! Ponoi 67° n e !! Pesochnoye i Korabelnoye o a e Lakhta Pon g j D u a n h i z c l r a o o 67° urn v a P ka Varzuga V n S a o n i S e o j n P s n Sergozero o n it o s p v a k p Bab'je a L a a Tulom i b P a ! u Sosnovets l n l k o Sosnovka a n B o g ab Island t a a a g J n j u a r l e l e p i S B r t ab t s a S a oz s er p it a o a Varzuga K m o ! o a p Kashkarantsy Ondomozera a h Py alit r L sa ! Kuzomen C ! ! Pyalitsa h Ustje-Varzuga 66° Mayak Nikodimsky ! ! T C! havanga ! ! Chapoma Tetrino Strelna Legend expedition route 66° study area biogeographical provinces W H I T E S E A ! populated places Scale 1: 2 000 000 38° 40° Figure 1. Sosnovets Island as a study area, and the route of our botanical expeditions to the south-eastern coast of the Kola Peninsula, July–August 2015–2016. Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 95, 2019 • Kozhin et al. 3 ry of the University of Helsinki. They stayed on published based on an expedition of the North- the islands for two weeks, 11–25 July, and pre- ern (Arctic) Federal University in 2012 (Churak- pared the first scientific collections (insects and ova et al. 2016). plants) from the White Sea islands (Sennikov & As a result of these activities, numerous an- Kozhin 2018). For a certain period, further floris- notated check-lists, vegetation descriptions and tic studies on the White Sea islands were sporad- analyses of human and natural dynamics of the is- ic and non-organized (Lindberg 1914; Pobedimo- land floras were published. However, all the pre- va et al. 1960; Uotila 2013). vious studies were performed in the taiga zone When the Kandalaksha Strict Nature Reserve and mainly in the western part of the White Sea. was founded in 1932, regular studies of the flo- To extend the studies into the tundra zone, we ra and vegetation had been established on the is- have started a new initiative that aimed at reveal- lands. A number of insular systems in the Kan- ing the flora and describing the vegetation of the dalaksha Bay were explored, first floristic check- islands situated along the north-eastern coast of lists (e.g. Bogdanova & Vekhov 1969a, 1969b; the White Sea. Vorob’eva 1986, 1989, 1996b; Zherikhina & On this way, Sosnovets Island was selected as Moskvicheva 2006), descriptions and classifica- a case study. We described its complete flora and tions of their flora and vegetation (Breslina 1987; plant communities in order to provide insights Vorob’eva 1996a; Kozhin 2011) were compiled. into the features of the northern islands’ species The flora of the Solovetsky Islands, the largest ar- composition, the vegetation of the tundra zone chipelago situated in the outer part of the Onega and its anthropogenic transformation. Bay, was regularly studied by the Moscow State University in 1980–2000 (e.g. Kiseleva et al. 1997), with later additions from other research- Study area ers (e.g. Savinov & Semashko 2014). Minor is- lands at the border of Murmansk Region and Ka- Sosnovets Island (Figs. 1, 2) is located 8 km south relia were explored by student expeditions from of the Arctic Circle near the south-eastern part of Moscow (Shipunov & Abramova 2006). Since the Tersky Coast in the White Sea Throat, at 66° 2000, the floras of the other Onega Bay islands 29′ N, 40° 41′ E. The island has an area of 40.6 have been studied by Karelian Research Centre ha, a length of 1385 m, a width of 445 m, and a of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kravchen- perimeter of ca 3.5 km. The summit plain is about ko et al. 2002, 2008, 2015). Recently, the infor- 10–15 m above sea level and the maximum ele- mation on the island floras of the Dvina Bay was vation situated in the southern part of the island Figure 2. General view of Sosnovets Island from a powered paraglider. Photo: Boris B. Vakhmistrov. 4 Kozhin et al. • Memoranda Soc. Fauna Flora Fennica 95, 2019 is 16.2 m above sea level. The Sosnovets light- part of the Tersky Coast, the climate is most se- house is located in the central part of the island. vere among all the other regions of the Sea (Yak- The southern shore is lower and flatter than the ovlev 1961). As observed at the Sosnovets weath- northern and western ones. The tideland width er station (ID 22355), the average annual temper- comprises from 10 to 90 m.