Abstract
Finnish botanists and mycologists have studied Arctic areas and timberline regions since the beginning of the 18th century. Most expeditions to the Kola Peninsula were made between 1800 and 1917 and until 1945 to Lapponia petsamoënsis on the western rim of the Kola Peninsula. Since those years, these areas have been part of the Soviet Union or Russia. Svalbard and Newfoundland and Labrador have been studied repeatedly as well, Svalbard since the 1860s and Newfoundland and Labrador since the 1930s. This article focuses on Finnish collections. These are deposited in the herbaria of Helsinki, Turku, and Oulu universities, except materials from the Nordenskiöld expeditions, which were mainly deposited in Stockholm. Concerning the Kola Peninsula, collections at Helsinki are the most extensive. The exact number of specimens is not known, but by rough estimation, the number is about 60 000, with an additional 110 000 observations included in the database. These expeditions have provided material to describe 305 new taxa to science, viz. 47 algae, 78 bryophytes, 25 fungi, 136 lichens, and 19 vascular plants. This number is an underestimate, as many new species have been described in several separate taxonomic articles. At least 63 persons have contributed to making these collections to Finnish herbaria. Of those, 52 are of Finnish nationality.
Highlights
It is important to gather distribution data of biodiversity in the Arctic including metadata on infomation holdings, as the Arctic is experiencing the effects of global warming at a much higher rate than other regions
Fungi Fungi collected during expeditions led by Nordenskiöld were sent to the leading mycologist of the time, Petter Adolf Karsten (1834–1917) (Fig. 2)
During a 200 year period until the present, Finnish botanists and mycologists have provided about 60 000specimens in the Arctic deposited to the Finnish Museum of Natural History, Botanical Museum, and about 50 000 observations made at the Kola Peninsula
Summary
It is important to gather distribution data of biodiversity in the Arctic including metadata on infomation holdings, as the Arctic is experiencing the effects of global warming at a much higher rate than other regions. Fungi Fungi collected during expeditions led by Nordenskiöld were sent to the leading mycologist of the time, Petter Adolf Karsten (1834–1917) (Fig. 2) He identified 62 taxa (H), of which 19 species and one subspecies were new to science, all microfungi on plants (Karsten 1872). Nylander reported 45 new species to the Fennoscandian biogeographic area and he described 10 new vascular plant taxa collected in the Arctic (Väre 2008). Brotherus studied the area as a participant of the Great Kola Expedition in 1887 (see Kairamo) In his travelogue, Brotherus (1888a, 1888b) lists his collection localities and “best” vascular plants discovered. Brotherus studied the Kola Peninsula as a participant in the Great Kola Expedition in 1887 (see Kairamo) Cladonia scotteri from Greenland was described as new to science and Cladonia uliginosa and Cladonia farinacea as new to Greenland (Hansen and Ahti 2011)
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