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Floristic division of the Arctic
Author(s) -
Yurtsev Boris A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3236191
Subject(s) - tundra , floristics , arctic , geography , circumpolar star , permafrost , vegetation (pathology) , flora (microbiology) , ecology , arctic vegetation , boreal , physical geography , lichen , karst , taxon , arctic ecology , oceanography , geology , biology , paleontology , archaeology , medicine , pathology , bacteria
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.