Dataset Information

Non-native vascular flora of the Arctic: Taxonomic richness, distribution and pathways.

ABSTRACT: We present a comprehensive list of non-native vascular plants known from the Arctic, explore their geographic distribution, analyze the extent of naturalization and invasion among 23 subregions of the Arctic, and examine pathways of introductions. The presence of 341 non-native taxa in the Arctic was confirmed, of which 188 are naturalized in at least one of the 23 regions. A small number of taxa (11) are considered invasive; these plants are known from just three regions. In several Arctic regions there are no naturalized non-native taxa recorded and the majority of Arctic regions have a low number of naturalized taxa. Analyses of the non-native vascular plant flora identified two main biogeographic clusters within the Arctic: American and Asiatic. Among all pathways, seed contamination and transport by vehicles have contributed the most to non-native plant introduction in the Arctic.

SUBMITTER: Wasowicz P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6989699 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Non-native vascular flora of the Arctic: Taxonomic richness, distribution and pathways.

Wasowicz Pawel P Sennikov Alexander N AN Westergaard Kristine B KB Spellman Katie K Carlson Matthew M Gillespie Lynn J LJ Saarela Jeffery M JM Seefeldt Steven S SS Bennett Bruce B Bay Christian C Ickert-Bond Stefanie S Väre Henry H

Ambio 20191202 3

We present a comprehensive list of non-native vascular plants known from the Arctic, explore their geographic distribution, analyze the extent of naturalization and invasion among 23 subregions of the Arctic, and examine pathways of introductions. The presence of 341 non-native taxa in the Arctic was confirmed, of which 188 are naturalized in at least one of the 23 regions. A small number of taxa (11) are considered invasive; these plants are known from just three regions. In several Arctic regi ...[more]

PMID: 31792797

Similar Datasets

Project description:Accurate identification of Arctic plant species is critical for understanding potential climate-induced changes in their diversity and distributions. To facilitate rapid identification we generated DNA barcodes for the core plastid barcode loci (rbcL and matK) for 490 vascular plant species, representing nearly half of the Canadian Arctic flora and 93% of the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Sequence recovery was higher for rbcL than matK (93% and 81%), and rbcL was easier to recover than matK from herbarium specimens (92% and 77%). Distance-based and sequence-similarity analyses of combined rbcL + matK data discriminate 97% of genera, 56% of species, and 7% of infraspecific taxa. There is a significant negative correlation between the number of species sampled per genus and the percent species resolution per genus. We characterize barcode variation in detail in the ten largest genera sampled (Carex, Draba, Festuca, Pedicularis, Poa, Potentilla, Puccinellia, Ranunculus, Salix, and Saxifraga) in the context of their phylogenetic relationships and taxonomy. Discrimination with the core barcode loci in these genera ranges from 0% in Salix to 85% in Carex. Haplotype variation in multiple genera does not correspond to species boundaries, including Taraxacum, in which the distribution of plastid haplotypes among Arctic species is consistent with plastid variation documented in non-Arctic species. Introgression of Poa glauca plastid DNA into multiple individuals of P. hartzii is problematic for identification of these species with DNA barcodes. Of three supplementary barcode loci (psbA-trnH, psbK-psbI, atpF-atpH) collected for a subset of Poa and Puccinellia species, only atpF-atpH improved discrimination in Puccinellia, compared with rbcL and matK. Variation in matK in Vaccinium uliginosum and rbcL in Saxifraga oppositifolia corresponds to variation in other loci used to characterize the phylogeographic histories of these Arctic-alpine species.

Project description:Victoria Island in Canada's western Arctic is the eighth largest island in the world and the second largest in Canada. Here, we report the results of a floristic study of vascular plant diversity of Victoria Island. The study is based on a specimen-based dataset comprising 7031 unique collections from the island, including some 2870 new collections gathered between 2008 and 2019 by the authors and nearly 1000 specimens variously gathered by N. Polunin (in 1947), M. Oldenburg (1940s-1950s) and S. Edlund (1980s) that, until recently, were part of the unprocessed backlog of the National Herbarium of Canada and unavailable to researchers. Results are presented in an annotated checklist, including keys and distribution maps for all taxa, citation of specimens, comments on taxonomy, distribution and the history of documentation of taxa across the island, and photographs for a subset of taxa. The vascular plant flora of Victoria Island comprises 38 families, 108 genera, 272 species, and 17 additional taxa. Of the 289 taxa known on the island, 237 are recorded from the Northwest Territories portion of the island and 277 from the Nunavut part. Thirty-nine taxa are known on the island from a single collection, seven from two collections and three from three collections. Twenty-one taxa in eight families are newly recorded for the flora of Victoria Island: Artemisia tilesii, Senecio lugens, Taraxacum scopulorum (Asteraceae); Crucihimalaya bursifolia, Draba fladnizensis, D. juvenilis, D. pilosa, D. simmonsii (Brassicaceae); Carex bigelowii subsp. bigelowii, Eriophorum russeolum subsp. albidum (Cyperaceae); Anthoxanthum monticola subsp. monticola, Bromus pumpellianus, Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. cespitosa, D. sukatschewii, Festuca rubra subsp. rubra, Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis (Poaceae); Stuckenia filiformis (Potamogetonaceae); Potentilla × prostrata (Rosaceae); Galium aparine (Rubiaceae); and Salix ovalifolia var. ovalifolia (Salicaceae). Eight of these are new to the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Senecio lugens, Draba juvenilis, D. pilosa, Anthoxanthum monticola subsp. monticola, Bromus pumpellianus, Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. cespitosa, Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis and Salix ovalifolia var. ovalifolia. One of these, Galium aparine, is newly recorded for the flora of Nunavut. Four first records for Victoria Island are introduced plants discovered in Cambridge Bay in 2017: three grasses (Festuca rubra subsp. rubra, Lolium perenne, and Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis) and Galium aparine. One taxon, Juncus arcticus subsp. arcticus, is newly recorded from the Northwest Territories. Of the general areas on Victoria Island that have been botanically explored the most, the greatest diversity of vascular plants is recorded in Ulukhaktok (194 taxa) and the next most diverse area is Cambridge Bay (183 taxa). The floristic data presented here represent a new baseline on which continued exploration of the vascular flora of Victoria Island - particularly the numerous areas of the island that remain unexplored or poorly explored botanically - will build.

Dataset Information

Non-native vascular flora of the Arctic: Taxonomic richness, distribution and pathways.

Publications

Non-native vascular flora of the Arctic: Taxonomic richness, distribution and pathways.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets