Stephen S. Talbot

Post-eruption Legacy Effects and Their Implications for Long-Term Recovery of the Vegetation on Kasatochi Island, Alaska

Abstract We studied the vegetation of Kasatochi Island, central Aleutian Islands, to provide a general field assessment regarding the survival of plants, lichens, and fungi following a destructive volcanic eruption that occurred in 2008. Plant community data were analyzed using multivariate methods to explore the relationship between pre- and post-eruption plant cover; 5 major vegetation types were identified: Honckenya peploides beach, Festuca rubra cliff shelf, Lupinus nootkatensis–Festuca rubra meadow, Leymus mollis bluff ridge (and beach), and Aleuria aurantia lower slope barrens. Our study provided a very unusual glimpse into the early stages of plant primary succession on a remote island where most of the vegetation was destroyed. Plants that apparently survived the eruption dominated early plant communities. Not surprisingly, the most diverse post-eruption community most closely resembled a widespread pre-eruption type. Microhabitats where early plant communities were found were distinct and apparently crucial in determining plant survival. Comparison with volcanic events in related boreal regions indicated some post-eruption pattern similarities.

Numerical classification of the coastal vegetation of Attu Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska

. This phytosociological study of the beaches, dunes, and associated lower mountain slopes of Attu Island is the first effort to identify the major coastal vegetation types of the Aleutian Islands using numerical methods. It is the first attempt to use the releve method in southern coastal Alaska and provides a basis for future comparison with other areas. 76 releves represent the range of structural and compositional variation in the matrix of vegetation and landform zonation at 16 locations. Data are analyzed by multivariate methods using the MULVA-4 computer package and ordered with Wildis numerical procedure to produce results similar to traditional phytosociological tabular classification. Nine major community types are distinguished in four physiognomic groups: 1. Dwarf-shrub mire: Vaccinium uliginosum-Empetrum nigrum; 2. Meadow: Athyrium filix-femina-Streptopus amplexifolius, Artemisia tilesii-Veratrum album, Elymus mollis-Montia (Claytonia) sibirica, Ligusticum scoticum-Elymus mollis; 3. Beach meadow: Elymus mollis-Senecio pseudo-arnica, Lathyrus maritimus-Elymus mollis; and 4. Beach: Mertensia maritima and Arenaria (Honckenya) peploides. These community types are described and interpreted in response to a complex, topographic gradient. Phytogeographic comparison of Attu Island with neighboring areas suggests close relationship to the beach and beach-meadow types of eastern Kamchatka and to the mesic meadows of the Alaskan Semidi Islands; there is a slightly lower relationship to the mesic meadows of nearby Buldir Island.

Toward a new arctic vegetation map: a review of existing maps

Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA; Fax +1 303 492 6388; E-mailDONALD.WALKER@COLORADO.EDU; Botanical Museum, University of Copenhagen, Gothersgade 130, DK-1123, Copenhagen, Denmark; Fax +45 35 32 22 10; Institut fur Okologie der Pflamen, Westfalische-Wilhelms-Universitädt, Hindenburgplatz 55, D-48143 Miinster, Germany; Fax +49 251 838371; Icelandic Museum of Natural History, Hiemmur 3, P.O. Box 5320, IS-125 Reykjavik, Iceland; Fax +354 1 620815; institute of Biology and Geology, Troms^ University, N-9037 Troms0, Norway; Fax +47 77 645600; ^ORUT Group Ltd., N-9005 Troms0, Norway; Tel. +47 776 80150; ^Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow 119899, Russia; Fax +7 095 932 8836; University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks, AK 99775-6960, USA; Fax +1 907 474 5469; ^U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1011 East Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99503, USA; Fax +1 907 786 3635; ^Komarov Botanical Institute, 197376 Russia, St. Peterburg, ul. Prof. Popova 2; Fax +7 812 234 4512; ^Canadian Forest Service, Northern Forestry Centre, 5320 122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6H3S5; Fax +1 403 435 7359

Lichens of Adak Island, Central Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Two hundred nineteen taxa of lichens including one lichen parasite are reported from Adak Island in the central Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Stereocaulon leprocephalum is new to North America; Caloplaca ferrugineofusca and Verrucaria ditmarsica are new to Alaska. The lichen flora is dominated by wide-ranging arctic-alpine and boreal species; a coastal element is moderately represented, while amphi-Beringian species form a minor element. This phytogeographic pattern is very similar to that of Attu Island, the westernmost Aleutian Island. The Aleutian Islands are a chain of mountainous volcanic islands extending in an arc 1,900 km west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula approaching the Commander Islands of northeast Asia. Adak Island is in the Andreanof Islands group within the central Aleutian Islands. Adak, the largest (748 km2) of this island group, is dominated by rugged mountainous terrain and broad rolling lowland areas; modified volcanic cones, Mt. Moffett and Adagdak, occur in the northern part and narrow beaches are usually found adjacent to sea cliffs. As one of the central islands in the Aleutian chain, Adak Island is of considerable phytogeographic interest. Hitherto the lichen flora of Adak Island has received little attention. The only existing literature records are found in three reports that collectively report 32 species. Degelius (1937) reported lichen specimens collected by the Swedish botanist Eric Hult6n in 1932 that included 14 lichens from Adak Island. Later, Stair (1948) added five species to the flora based on a collection of W. J. Christian. Hein (1980) increased the list by 13 species. Of the species reported on Adak Island by previous authors only five, Alectoria sarmentosa (Ach.) Ach., Cetraria ciliaris Ach. (= Tuckermannopsis ciliaris), Cladonia pseudoevansii Asah. (= Cladina pseudoevansii), Pertusaria glomerata (Ach.) Schaerer, and Umbilicaria proboscidea (L.) Schrader, were not collected by the present authors. Comparative data from the nearest Aleutian Islands for which the lichen flora is relatively well known are Amchitka Island, 250 km to the west of Adak Island, and Attu Island, 650 km to the west. Thomson and Sowl (1989) reported the known total of Amchitka Island as 149 species and Talbot et al. (1991) reported 160 taxa for Attu Island. In the Tuxedni Wilderness Area of western lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, 1,800 km to the east of Adak Island, Talbot et al. (1992) reported 218 taxa. Caribou were introduced to Adak Island during the 1940s and lichens are known to be important in their diet (Sjenneberg & Slagsvold 1979; Sveinbjornsson 1990). Our qualitative observations of Adak Island lichens suggest that lichen cover may have been reduced due to grazing pressure from caribou. As a pioneering effort, the present study provides a checklist and voucher collection if future range assessment becomes necessary.

Circumpolar Arctic vegetation: a hierarchic review and roadmap toward an internationally consistent approach to survey, archive and classify tundra plot data

Satellite-derived remote-sensing products are providing a modern circumpolar perspective of Arctic vegetation and its changes, but this new view is dependent on a long heritage of ground-based observations in the Arctic. Several products of the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna are key to our current understanding. We review aspects of the PanArctic Flora, the Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map, the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment, and the Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA) as they relate to efforts to describe and map the vegetation, plant biomass, and biodiversity of the Arctic at circumpolar, regional, landscape and plot scales. Cornerstones for all these tools are ground-based plant-species and plant-community surveys. The AVA is in progress and will store plot-based vegetation observations in a public-accessible database for vegetation classification, modeling, diversity studies, and other applications. We present the current status of the Alaska Arctic Vegetation Archive (AVA-AK), as a regional example for the panarctic archive, and with a roadmap for a coordinated international approach to survey, archive and classify Arctic vegetation. We note the need for more consistent standards of plot-based observations, and make several recommendations to improve the linkage between plot-based observations biodiversity studies and satellite-based observations of Arctic vegetation.

Biological legacies: Direct early ecosystem recovery and food web reorganization after a volcanic eruption in Alaska

Abstract: Attempts to understand how communities assemble following a disturbance are challenged by the difficulty of determining the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes. Biological legacies, which result from organisms that survive a disturbance, can favour deterministic processes in community assembly and improve predictions of successional trajectories. Recently disturbed ecosystems are often so rapidly colonized by propagules that the role of biological legacies is obscured. We studied biological legacies on a remote volcanic island in Alaska following a devastating eruption where the role of colonization from adjacent communities was minimized. The role of biological legacies in the near shore environment was not clear, because although some kelp survived, they were presumably overwhelmed by the many vagile propagules in a marine environment. The legacy concept was most applicable to terrestrial invertebrates and plants that survived in remnants of buried soil that were exposed by post-eruption erosion. If the legacy concept is extended to include ex situ survival by transient organisms, then it was also applicable to the islands thousands of seabirds, because the seabirds survived the eruption by leaving the island and have begun to return and rebuild their nests as local conditions improve. Our multi-trophic examination of biological legacies in a successional context suggests that the relative importance of biological legacies varies with the degree of destruction, the availability of colonizing propagules, the spatial and temporal scales under consideration, and species interactions. Understanding the role of biological legacies in community assembly following disturbances can help elucidate the relative importance of colonists versus survivors, the role of priority effects among the colonists, convergence versus divergence of successional trajectories, the influence of spatial heterogeneity, and the role of island biogeographical concepts.

Lichens of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Westernmost Alaska Peninsula

Abstract One hundred eighty-two taxa of lichens including two lichen parasites are reported from Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Metasphaeria tartarina is new to North America; Scoliciosporum umbrinum is new to Alaska. Wide-ranging, arctic-alpine, and boreal species dominate the lichen flora; a coastal element is moderately represented, while amphi-Beringian species form a minor element. Epigeic lichen abundance is described along a lowland to alpine mesotopographic gradient selected to represent major landscape variation in the refuge. Of six major community types identified, three had significant lichen components.

Lichens from Simeonof Wilderness, Shumagin Islands, Southwestern Alaska

Abstract One hundred eighty-eight taxa of lichens are reported from Simeonof Island in the Shumagin Islands of southwestern Alaska. Wide-ranging arctic-alpine and boreal species dominate the lichens; a coastal element is moderately represented, while amphi-Beringian species form a minor element. The lichen component of Empetrum nigrum dwarf shrub heath, the dominant vegetation type, was analyzed to identify the most frequently occurring lichens within this community.

Lichens from St. Matthew and St. Paul Islands, Bering Sea, Alaska

Abstract One hundred thirty-nine taxa of lichens including two lichen parasites are reported from St. Matthew and St. Paul Islands in the Bering Sea. Caloplaca lithophila is new to Alaska. Wide-ranging arctic-alpine and boreal species dominate the lichens; a coastal element is moderately represented, while amphi-Beringian species form a minor element. In comparison with St. Paul Island, St. Matthew Island is richer in arctic-alpine species.

Vascular flora of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Westernmost Alaska Peninsula, Alaska

Abstract The vascular flora of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), where few previous collections had been reported, was collected and recorded at sites selected to represent the totality of environmental variation. A total of 349 species (339 native and 10 introduced) was identified. To provide a comparative phytogeographic framework, we analyzed data from published reports that categorized vascular plant distribution patterns from a circumpolar, North American, and Alaskan perspective. The native flora of the Izembek NWR primarily includes species of circumpolar (38%), eastern Asian (23%), Eurasian (18%), and North American (13%) distribution. The most important longitudinal distributional classes in North America consist of transcontinental (62%) and extreme western species (31%). The annotated list of species in Izembek NWR expands the range of many species, filling a distributional gap in Hulténs Western Pacific Coast district. Forty notable range extensions are reported. The flora of Izembek NWR is primarily made up of boreal species and lacks many of the species considered to be Arctic. Comparison with the Raunkiaer life-form spectrum similarly points to the boreal.