Botanica Pacifica. A journal of plant science and conservation. 2018. 7(2):105–125 DOI: 10.17581/bp.2018.07212 Bryophyte flora of the Magadan Province (Russia) I. Introduction and the checklist of mosses Olga Yu. Pisarenko1* & Vadim A. Bakalin2 Olga Yu. Pisarenko1* ABSTRACT e­mail: [email protected] This paper presents the first of two parts of bryophyte flora study in the Ma­ Vadim A. Bakalin2 ga dan Province (Russia). It provides a review of the area’s geography, climate, e­mail: [email protected] vee g tation history and current vegetation cover. The checklist of the mosses re cor ded from the province summarizes all available data on the Magadan Pro­ 1 vince moss flora, including previously published reports, our own collections and Central Siberian Botanical Garden other avai lable specimens deposited in NSK, VBGI as well as MAG and LE. It Novosibirsk 630090 Russia al so includes data on distribution of 364 moss species, 133 of which were not in­ clu ded in the prior summary of the mosses from the province by Blagodatskikh 2 Botanical Garden­Institute FEB RAS (1984). Each taxon is annotated with data on its frequency, distribution within the Vladivostok 690024 Russia stu died key plots, elevation and habitats. Despite the relatively large number of spe cies recor ded, the checklist is, nevertheless, preliminary. Bulk of taxa from the Ma gadan Province have been recorded from the western part of the province, whereas the eastern part still remains poorly investigated. * corresponding author Keywords: bryophyta, Russian Far East, biodiversity, Kolyma, Okhotsk coast, Olskoye Ba­ salt Plateau, phytogeography, North­East Asia Manuscript received: 27.06.2018 Review completed: 28.10.2018 РЕЗЮМЕ Accepted for publication: 02.11.2018 Писаренко О.Ю., Бакалин В.А. Мохообразные Магаданской области Published online: 06.11.2018 (Россия) I. Введение и список мхов. Статья является первой частью из­ ло жения результатов целенаправленного изучения флоры мохообразных Ма га данской области; во вводной части дана характеристика физико­гео гра­ фических условий, климата и растительности. Основную часть составляе т аннотированный список мхов Магаданской области, составленный при обоб­ щении результатов обработки собственных коллекций (NSK, VBGI) и опуб­ ликованных ранее материалов, а также частичной ревизии образцов, хра ня­ щих ся в MAG и LE. Список содержит данные о распространении 364 видов мхов, что на 133 вида больше, чем приводилось в предыдущей обобщающе й работе Благодатских (1984). Для каждого вида указаны встречае мость, высот­ ный диапазон, распределение по изученной территории и ос нов ные место­ обитания. Несмотря на значительное число зарегистриро ван ных таксонов, список мхов Магаданской области является предварительным, поскольку вос­ точная часть территории остается очень слабо исследованной. Ключевые слова: мхи, мохообразные, Российский Дальний Восток, биораз но об­ ра зие, фитогеография, Колыма, Охотское побережье, Ольское Базальтовое плато, Се веро­Восточная Азия INTRODUCTION The main problem facing the study of bryophytes in the The Magadan Province remains one of the poorly stu­ Magadan Province is the poor network of roads within the died regions of Russia in regards to its moss flora. Only province, which impedes fieldwork. The first road con nec­ within the last 40 years have bryologists taken an interest in ting the Magadan Province with the adjacent Re pub lic of the province, and even then, only a few taxa were reported Yakutia was constructed in the last 30 years of the twen­ be fore Dr. Lidia Savelievna Blagodatskikh’s systematic at­ tieth century. This road, in a broad sense, remains the only tempt to document the bryophytes at the last quarter of con necting corridor by land to other regions of Russia. the twen tieth century. Over an approximately 15 year span, Other roads are extremely local and very few. Due to the she con ducted research on several local bryophyte floras, latter circumstance, the collecting localities visited by Bla go­ and summarized all of her collection data in the “Mosses dat skikh, as well by us, are located mainly along the federal of Ko lyma Upland” (Blagodatskikh 1984). In addition to route, Magadan­Susuman­Ust­Nera, and its branch through this va luable survey of the moss flora, Blagodatskikh (1988) Kha syn­Omchak (Fig. 1). The summary published by Bla­ also published the first account of the liverworts of the go dat skikh (1984) lists 234 moss taxa and is a major con­ province. tri bu tion to the knowledge of the moss diversity both in ©Botanical Garden-Institute FEB RAS. 2018 105 Pisarenko & Bakalin for the province is summarized in Table 1. The current climate is characterized by short and re­ la ti vely cool summers, although these can be locally hot and dry in ultracontitental areas. The winters are long and cold with minimum temperatures reaching ­60°C and lower. Some regional variation occurs in the areas adjacent to the coas tal line, with a relatively strong influence observed at the nearest 15–20 km from the sea shore (Yurtzev 1974, Ber kutenk o et al. 2010), however by large valleys wet air mas ses sometimes able to spread for 100 and even 200 km northward from the Sea of Okhotsk. Along the sea coast, the summer is foggy, wetter and much colder than in inner areas of the Kolyma Figure 1 The exploration of the Magadan bryophyte flora. Black dots show localities cited by Plateau. The opposite si tuation Blagodatskikh (1984), circled numbers from 1 to 8 are the localities investigated by our current is characteristic of winters when research in 2010–2014 (see Table 3 for description). Borders of floristic districts are after Khokh ria­ kov (1985) and Berkutenko et al. (2010). Abbreviations for the floristic districts areK – Kolymsky, coastal areas have much warmer OK – Okhotstko­Kolymsky, O – Okhotstky, GO – Gizhigsko­Omolonsky; G – Gizhigsky and weather than the interior of the Om – Omolonsky (for the last two districts there are no bryological data) Kolyma Up land. The average annual temperature in the Magadan re gion varies from ­2 – the province as well as in North­East Asia. The specimens ­3°C on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk to ­11 – ­13°C in colc le ted by Blagodatskikh are mostly deposited in LE. This the continental districts. The ther mo re gula tory role of the material has since been used in monographs of several ge­ sea provides a relatively long frost­free period: as a rule, on ne ra for the Russian moss flora, including, among others, most of the coast, the temperatures below zero in Celsius those by Czernyadjeva (1999, 2004), Ignatova & Muñoz scale begin in the third month of Sep tember and end in the (2004), Afonina & Blagodatskikh (2006), Afonina & Igna to­ first month of June; the duration of the frost­free period va (2007), Afonina (2008), Ignatov & Igna tova (2008), Ma­ exceeds an average of 100 days. In con tinental areas in some xi mov & Ignatova (2008), Fedosov & Igna tova (2011), Igna­ years, the frost­free period (the dura tion of days without tov (2012), Fedosov (2012) and Ivanova et al. 2014. even morning frost exceeds 30 days) is not observed. Only a few new bryophyte reports from the Magadan Winter in the Magadan region lasts from 6 months in the Pro vince have been published since Blagodatskykh’s (1984) South to 7.5 months in the North. Snow occurs on average work. Most of these were made during the course of our by the middle of October (in some years to a month earlier) work, although a few were added by the collections of other and disappears by May. The Ma ga dan Province is situated re sear chers (Chemeris & Mochalova 2015). completely in the land with per mafrost ground distribution. The present paper is the first of two parts devoted to Sometimes this results in additional wetting of the ground the description of the bryophyte flora of the Magadan Pro­ and development of swam py communities (although the vince. The main goal of part one is to provide a general over­ mountainous relief common ly impedes these processes) view of the province, the collecting localities and to list the and making soils poor in nutrition and acidic for plants. recorded mosses. Part two will detail the recorded liver worts Vegetation in the province as well as summarize the bryophyte flora. The vegetation of the Magadan Province possesses a He mi arctic nature (Fig. 2) and is completely included in the STUDY AREA Hemiarctic (=Hypoarctic) Botanical­Geographical zone, in Climate the sense of Yurtzev (1966). However, the vegetation and Meteorological stations are very scattered across the flo ra at its southernmost extreme is noticeably different from Maa g dan Province and are mostly located in settlements the remaining land and possesses a somewhat transitional within river valleys. Consequently, the latter provide some cha rac ter to the Boreal (taiga) zone (Yurtzev 1966). Various li mi ta tions towards an understanding of real climate in the types of mountain tundras are widely distributed in the areas under investigations. Very approximate information Magadan Pro vince. The communities similar to the arctic 106 Botanica Pacifica. A journal of plant science and conservation. 2018. 7(2): 105–125 Mosses of Magadan Region (the Russian Far East) Table 1. The climate characteristics (by: Kovel' 1990). Plot studied are numbered according Fig. 1; Floristic district are named according to Khokhriakov 1985. Floristic district Nearest meteostation (with Cyrillic Mean annual Mean January Mean July Average frost­ Average an­ (number of plot) script), coordinates, altitude temperature, temperature, temperature, free period, nu al precipi­ Т, °С T, °С T, °С days tation, mm Kolymsky (1) Canyon (Каньон) ­11 ­30.7 12.2 48 484 63°N, 152°E; 686 m alt.