Floristics, Phytogeography, and Ecology of Arctic Alaskan Bryophytes

Abstract

Our knowledge of the bryophytes of Arctic Alaska has been much enhanced in recent years by the appearance of a series of useful catalogues and checklists compiled from the literature or based, at least in part, on actual field exploration and original investigation (Murray, 1974; Murray and Murray, 1974, 1978; Rastorfer, 1972; Rastorfer et al., 1973; Smith, 1974; Worley, 1970; Worley and Iwatsuki, 1970, 1971; Steere, 1978). The bryophyte flora of Arctic Alaska is surprisingly large, even after only a relatively short period of study, and with remarkably few bryologists contributing to our knowledge of it. At present 420 species of mosses and 135 species of hepatics (Steere and Inoue, 1978) are known for a total number of known species of bryophytes of 555 (Table 1), many of which have not yet been reported. Within a few years, if bryological exploration continues, this number will likely reach 600. This prediction is an educated guess in that (1) several as yet undescribed species are in hand, (2) some species of uncertain identity, and still not identified, are omitted from the count, (3) new and capable bryologists are entering the field, (4) the enormous, difficult, and untidy genus Bryum has not yet received the careful treatment that will certainly double the number of known species in Arctic Alaska, and (5) the hepatics, likewise, have been insufficiently collected and studied by professional hepaticologists. An interesting comparison is that Crum (1972, 1976) reports only 245 species of mosses from the Douglas Lake region of the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, bryologically one of the best known areas of the middle west. The whole state of Michigan has some 345 species of mosses, but it has a much more favorable climate and a much more diversified vegetation than Arctic Alaska—yet the latter area has more species.