Plant colonisation patterns on a gletschervorfeld, southern Norway: a meso‐scale geographical approach to vegetation change and phytometric dating

A quantitative geographical approach is made to colonisation by vascular plant species on Storbreen gletschervorfeld, Jotunheimen, southern Norway. The approach adds a second dimension to the study of plant colonisation patterns on recently deglaciated terrain, allows inferences to be made about vegetation change and has implications for phytometric dating. An atlas of computer maps is presented based on the frequency of the most commonly occurring species over a dense pattern of sites. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling is used to compare the maps and to describe their similarities. Species diversity is mapped and described with the aid of trend surface analysis. Colonisation is interpreted as proceeding by a series of environmentally‐conditioned waves of immigration by species. A ‘pioneer’ species group is replaced by ‘snowbed’ species at high altitudes and by ‘heath’ species at lower altitudes. A peak of diversity is reached after 25–35 years but diversity later declines and may then rise or fall to the climax. The marked spatial discontinuity in species occurrence at the gletschervorfeld boundary indicates that a dynamic equilibrium (the climax state) is still to be reached after 220 years of development. Few species can be regarded as universal indicators of surface age but many species are potentially useful for phytometric dating over a limited environmental range. Species that are characteristic of a particular phase of a succession are most useful for dating purposes.