Vascular Plants Flora of Mire Ecosystem of the Bolshoy Shantar Island (the Far East of Russia)

Lyubov A. Antonova,Viktoriya A. Kuptsova,Vladimir V. Chakov

doi:10.3390/plants11060723

Abstract

This article presents the findings of the authors’ study of the mire ecosystem vascular plants of the island of Bolshoy Shantar, which is the largest island in the Shantar archipelago. Bolshoy Shantar Island is an insular ecosystem, the study of which can provide insight into the natural “polygons” of evolution at work. The botanical research was conducted through the application of traditional techniques of floristic and geobotanical studies. The material for this article was drawn from 73 floristic and 54 geobotanical descriptions made between 2016–2018 in the north-eastern part of Bolshoy Shantar Island on four mire massifs associated with various hypsometric surfaces. The findings of this study indicate that the flora of vascular plants of the mires of Bolshoy Shantar Island reflect the peculiarities of a regional mire type that formed in the insular conditions of the Pacific. The species richness of the vascular flora of the island’s mire ecosystems is evidenced by a total species count of 158, composed of 109 genera and 48 families, which accounts for more than one quarter (26.3%) of the Shantar archipelago’s flora. Over half of these species (63.7%) form the core of the mire flora.

Highlights

The Shantar archipelago is the largest in the marine territory of Khabarovsk Krai, with a total length of over 2000 km
The results of this study established that the vascular plant flora of the Bolshoy Shantar Island mire ecosystems total 158 species, comprising 109 genera and 48 families, and comprising more than one quarter (26.3%) of the Shantar archipelago flora [5]
In order to highlight the specific features of the mire flora of the ecosystem studied, our research identified species that are exclusively or predominantly characteristic of mires and represent a core of the mire flora, or coenotic complex [19]

Summary

Introduction

The Shantar archipelago is the largest in the marine territory of Khabarovsk Krai, with a total length of over 2000 km. It is located in the south-west part of the Okhotsk Sea between 54◦ N and 55◦ N and 136◦ E and 139◦ E. The peculiarity of the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Shantar Islands lies not in the species richness and the endemism of its representatives, but in the existence of the biota of various origins and ecology, which forms ecosystems of complex composition and structure in the limited islands area [5]

Objectives

Methods

Results