Phytogeography of Middle West Greenland

Abstract

The starting-point of the present work is botanical collections and observations made during an expedition in 1958 and shorter travels in 1961. As regard situation, the 40 localities investigated supplement those examined in 1946. So it has been possible to make a phytogeographical survey of the area between lat. 65°30' N. and 70° N. As in the corresponding latitude in East Greenland, an important change takes place in Middle West Greenland from a more or less boreal montane-oceanic flora in the south to a genuine arctic  and at the same time continentally characterized flora in the north. The transition is illustrated by 50 maps, especially maps of distribution with stations marked on them. A main result is that a material part of the "southern" flora in Greenland at its northern limit makes for a maritime climate in coastal mountains, not for the warmer hinterland. These species thus are most sensitive to the degree of continentality, a fact which is estimated to be of importance for theories about their survival in Greenland during the last Glacial Age. It is attempted to divide the whole of the west Greenland flora into 11 types of distribution on the basis of the climatic requirements of the species as these requirements are reflected in the Greenland distribution of the species. A large number of the species bound to the coast are eastern (European).

Conditions of vegetation are described partly with accounts of the individual localities (especially by means of profile transects), partly by the grouping of 334 quadrate analyses in 21 tables. The sociations are grouped according to physiognomy (life form), but finally subdivided according to distributional type and ecology. In support of this classification spectra of distributional type have been calculated for the various communities. The work concludes with a discussion of principles of classification and an index of species intended to facilitate the study of the ecological behaviour of the individual species.