The vascular flora of Terra Nova National Park, Newfoundland, Canada: a biodiversity analysis from a biogeographical and life form perspective

2000 ◽  
Vol 78 (5) ◽  
pp. 629-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Charest ◽  
Luc Brouillet ◽  
André Bouchard ◽  
Stuart Hay

Terra Nova National Park, located on the east coast of Newfoundland, has a vascular flora of 535 taxa, including 33 rare species and 94 introduced taxa. About 75% of the native flora of the Park is composed of hemicryptophyte and cryptophyte species. Phanerophytes and nanophanerophytes represent only 13% of the flora, but the percentages of occurrence of these life forms reaches 31%. The flora of the Park is mainly boreal (56%), composed mainly of Boreal North American, Boreal Eastern North American, and Circumboreal elements. Arctic-alpine species are infrequent. We report two species as new to Newfoundland: Festuca richardsonii Hooker (Poaceae) and Carex communis L.H. Bailey var. communis (Cyperaceae). Significant positive and negative associations between (i) life forms and (ii) phytogeographical elements, and the distribution of species within the habitats of the Park were established using the Fourth Corner Method. Distribution of life forms and phytogeographical elements within habitats of the Park appears to be explained more by ecological characteristics of species than by their history.Key words: life form, biogeography, biodiversity, Terra Nova National Park, Newfoundland, Canada.

2020 ◽  
Vol 153 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-389
Author(s):  
Farzaneh Bordbar ◽  
Pierre Meerts

Background and aims – This work provides the first pattern analysis of the alien flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo), using Asteraceae and Fabaceae as a case study. Methods – Based on herbarium collections, existing databases, and literature data, a database of 38 alien species of Asteraceae and 79 alien species of Fabaceae has been assembled. Patterns in the introduction pathway, phylogeny, life form, morpho-functional traits, geographic origin, and occurrence in D.R. Congo are explored. Key results – America is the main source continent in both families, but Asia is also an important donor of Fabaceae. Taxonomic spectrum discrepancies between the alien and the native flora reflect the continent of origin. Sixty-six percent of alien Asteraceae have been accidentally introduced, most of which being annual weeds of disturbed soil. In contrast, 90% of alien Fabaceae have been deliberately introduced for forestry, agriculture, or environmental purposes, most of which being phanerophytes. Traits were compared between pairs of congeneric alien and native species. For Asteraceae, a sharp discrepancy was found in the life form spectrum (aliens: mostly therophytes; natives: phanerophytes). For Fabaceae, alien species had larger leaves and larger pods compared to their native congeners. The number of specimens in collections was positively correlated with the time since the date of first collection for both families. The Guineo-Congolian region has the highest number of alien Fabaceae, while alien Asteraceae are overrepresented in the Zambezian region.Conclusions – Contrasting patterns between alien Asteraceae and Fabaceae in the flora of D.R. Congo in terms of life forms, trait divergence compared to the native flora, and occurrence, reflect the divergent biological attributes and relations to humans of the two families. The striking discrepancies between the two families call for analyses of patterns of alien flora at family level and warn against global generalisations.


2010 ◽  
pp. 129-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rade Cvjeticanin ◽  
Marijana Novakovic

This paper deals with the forest plant community of beech, fir and spruce (Piceo-Fago-Abietetum Colic 1965), which is the most widely distributed plant community on the territory of national park ?Tara?. Spectrum of life forms and floristic elements are specified for this community. Spectrum of life forms shows that hemicryptophytes are the most frequent, with high occurrence of geophytes, which is characteristic of this mesophilous plant community. Spectrum of floristic elements show that centraleuropean floristic element is dominant and that this plant community is under strong influence of subcentraleuropean region. Five subassociations are set apart on the basis of floristic composition and site conditions: typicum, drymetosum, aceretosum, pinetosum silvestrae and vaccinietosum. Spectrum of life forms is made for every subassociation separately in aim to compare their floristic compositions. Subassociations aceretosum and vaccinietosum are characterized by the highest occurence of phanerophytes, and the lowest occurence of this life form is represented in subassociation drymetosum. The highest occurence of geophytes is in subassociation aceretosum, and the lowest in pinetosum silvestrae and vaccinietosum. Occurence of hemicryptophytes is the highest in subassociations drymetosum and pinetosum silvestrae, and the lowest in aceretosum. Subassociation typicum is stable plant community, subassociations drymetosum and vaccinietosum grow on poorer sites, while subassociations aceretosum and pinetosum silvestrae represent degradation of beech, fir and spruce forest (Piceo-Fago-Abietetum Colic 1965).


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 16-26
Author(s):  
B. A. Baranovski

Results of non-native flora surveys on Samara Dniprovska River valley within the designed National Park «Samarsky Bir» were analyzed in the paper. Scientific justification on first stage creation of the national-level National Park «Samarsky Bir» was prepared in 2012. Its area included the main park area with floodplain, arena and gully landscapes of the rivers Samara and Oril interstream. List of vascular plant species on floodplain, arena and gully habitats of Prisamar'ya counted 887 species. They are classified as 5 divisions, 6 classes, 108 families, 429 genera. This article presents a list of non-native flora fraction with bioecological characteristic of the plant species. The surveys were conducted by conventional methods on vascular flora studying. Analysis of the main plant ecomorphs was carried out by A. L. Belgard ecomorph system (1950). Invasion of plant species in the steppe zone of Ukraine has a long history complicated by significant anthropogenic transformation of the territory. We investigated the status of non-native plants, their ecomorphs, and tendency to invasiveness on the territory of National Park «Samarsky Bir» designed. Presence of 195 adventitious vascular plant species belonging to 48 families was determined. Of them, 7 families with the greatest abundance of non-native species contained 113 taxa (58 % of the total); 20 families were represented with 2–7 advents, and 20 families contained only 1 non-native species. Thus, today the share of non-native species in the vascular flora of the region accounted for nearly 22 %. Most of adventitious species are mesoxerophytes and xeromesophytes. In a cenomorphic relationship, vegetation being ruderal on the territory of Ukraine is dominated in composition of non-native flora. Within the total number of adventitious species, archaeophytes amount up 44 %, whereas neophytes come up to 56 %. The greatest abundance of adventitious species has been found in Brassicaceae, Asterasea and Poaceae families (15 %, 12 %, and 11 % of the total, respectively). 119 non-native vascular plant species were found in the steppe cenoses, 79 species in the gully and watershed forests, 90 species in floodplain forests, and 52 species on the territory of the sandy terrace. Among all the non-native species, 28 species have been identified as invasive, and there was a trend to increased invasiveness of some species in recent years. Among heterogenous species 12 of them were identified as invasive, and there was a tendency to increase theinvasiveness of some species in recent years. The analysis provided on non-native flora in the National Park evidences significant anthropogenic transformation of the territory; that requires establishment of appropriate regime on protection of this important ecological object.


1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Bouchard ◽  
Stuart Hay ◽  
Yves Bergeron ◽  
Alain Leduc

2012 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Banach

This paper presents the results of floristic studies conducted in the years 2003 - 2005 within the area of the Polesie National Park. The aim of the research was to compare the flora of initial succession stages in drainage ditches with the flora of neighbouring forest areas undergoing transformation as a result of drainage. Floristic lists were made in four designated study areas as well as in forest phytocoenoses. The results of field investigations were subjected to analysis with regard to the systematic affinity of the flora and proportions of plant life-forms as well as of historical-geographical groups and range groups. In the species composition of the studied drainage ditches hemicryptophytes were the dominant group of plant higher life-forms, whereas in the neighbouring communities the flora was represented by both hemicryptophytes and megaphanerophytes. In historical and geographical terms, the flora of drainage ditches and neighbouring communities represents definitely the group of spontaneophytes. Anthropogenic habitats, which developed within the drainage ditches, were colonised by native flora species characteristic for the Polesie National Park area.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelino Carta ◽  
Leonardo Forbicioni ◽  
Giuliano Frangini ◽  
Brunello Pierini ◽  
Lorenzo Peruzzi

We present an updated list of the vascular flora occurring on Elba island (Tuscan Archipelago). The list is based on bibliographic analysis and field studies carried out in the years 2006–2018. With a total of 1,098 specific and subspecific taxa currently occurring on the island (including 101 naturalized aliens), plus 67 casual aliens and 16 hybrid taxa, Elba shows the highest number of species among the islands of the Tuscan Archipelago. Two taxa are new for Tuscany: Hieraciumsymphytaceum s.l. and Ophrysexaltatasubsp.morisii; 22 taxa are new for the island, 34 have been confirmed, while 326 were reliably recorded previously by other authors, but not confirmed by our study. We excluded 41 taxa and considered doubtful the occurrence of 87. Life forms and chorotypes are in agreement with the Mediterranean climate of the island. Despite this, Elba also hosts a considerable proportion of Eurosiberian taxa. We detected significant differences in chorotypes and life forms spectra among different geographical portions of the island, paralleling distinct bioclimatic patterns. Despite the institution of the Tuscan Archipelago National Park, we are still far from an integrated protection of the island flora. Based on our results, it has been possible to arrange a geodatabase of the flora on the island, useful for its protection.


1970 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-168
Author(s):  
Muta Harah Zakaria ◽  
Wong Siaw Chia ◽  
Japar Sidik Bujang ◽  
Aziz Arshad ◽  
Hisao Ogawa

A study on macroalgae diversity and life form was carried out at inter-tidal rocky shores of Similajau National Park, Bintulu, Sarawak. Thirty five species were identified in this study, of which 15 belong to the division Rhodophyta, 12 to the Chlorophyta and 8 to Phaeophyta. Fifteen species are new records to the Park. Irrespective of areas, macroalgae from the three divisions; Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta did not show any distinct zonation. There was high number of macroalgae species in rocky area related to the sandy area. The high representation of macroalgae from rocky area reflects the availability of stable substrate and microhabitats for the occurrence and diversity of macroalgae species. The sandy area lacks hard structure responsible for the relatively low diversity of macroalgae. Four types of macroalgae life forms were identified namely epilithic, epipelic, epizoic and epiphytic. The general distribution, occurrence and a list of the macroalgae is presented.


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