Salt marsh flora and vegetation of the Russian Arctic coasts

Abstract

The flora of open coasts and the estuaries of rivers is an important element of the Arctic flora and represents the littoral halophytic floristic complex. The salt marsh flora includes 113 species of vascular plants (12% of the total amount of Arctic flora), belonging to 62 families. Due to geographical conditions, the partial floras of coastal wetlands of the Russian Arctic have similar taxonomic and typological structure. In the geographical structure of flora-coenotic complex, the Arctic circumpolar species dominate. The Arctic coastlines are subjected to frequent disturbances associated with frost action, storms and ice pressure ridges that affect species richness and the ability of human populations to exploit coastal resources successfully. The dynamic changes of salt-marsh plant communities are site-specific: 1) in the initial stages, vegetation development mostly depends on the physical-chemical substrate properties and tidal action, 2) the spatial-temporal processes of successional change over a long time result in the environment development and changes in edaphic conditions. The time scale of these changes brought about by disturbances is biologically important as there must be sufficient time to allow genetic adaptation in plant and animal populations.