Scientific publications

Some associations of Dryas octopetala-dominated communities in the Russian European sub-arctic tundra are observed, and tables of releves are provided. In tundra zone of Murmansk Province there was described ass. Dryadetum octopetalae (Du Rietz 1925) Nordh. 1955. Ass. Stereocaulono paschalis–Dryadetum octopetalae ass. nov., ass. Pediculari oederi–Dryadetum octopetalae (Andreev 1932) nom. nov., аss. Salici reticulatae–Dryadetum octopetalae ass. nov. and аss. Dryado octoprtalae–Caricetum arctisibiricae Koroleva et Kulyugina in Chytrý et al. 2015 – in Pechorskaja lowland and nearby Pay-Khoy Mountains. In the subarctic tundra of North-Eastern Europe there is proposed new alliance, Dryado octopetalae–Caricion arctisibiricae (Koroleva et Kulyugina 2010) Koroleva in Chytrý et al. 2015, with diagnostic taxa Dryas octopetala (dominant), Carex arctisibirica (dominant), Salix reticulata, Pedicularis oederi, Saxifraga hieracifolia, S. hirculus, Eritrichium villosum, Hedysarum arcticum, Ranunculus monophyllus and аss. Dryado octopеtalae–Caricetum arctisibiricae Koroleva et Kulyugina in Chytrý et al. 2015 as a type. New alliance comprises Dryas octopetala-dominated, from small- to medium-sized plant communities with prevalence of dwarf shrubs and grasses and with high portion of mosses, situated on south-exposed and well-drained hilltops and slopes of morainic hills of Bolshezemelskaja and Malozemelskaja Tundra, in hilltops and low slopes nearby Pay-Khoy Mountains, on clayey, sandy and gravelly substrata, sometimes with frost boiling patches. Area of alliance lies in the subarctic tundra of the north-east of European Russia, Malozemelskaja Tundra, Bolshezemelskaja Tundra and Jugorskyi Peninsula with low mountains Pay-Khoy (bioclimatic zones D and E, Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map, [Walker et al., 2005]). Dryas octopetala dominated plant communities are rather rare in the western part of this area (inMurmansk Province the Malozemelskaja Tundra) and get more widely distributed to the east of Bolshezemelskaja tundra andPay-KhoyMountains. They are of the species richest communities and present value habitat types in tundra zone of European Russia.