Abstract
Arctic tundra and high alpine vegetation are complex mosaics of very different communities, each fragment being related to the local microclimate and to soil type. Arctic tundra is more varied than high-altitude tundra, with many communities intergrading in an intricate fashion, and some of these are set out in Table 17.1. The proportion of ground covered by each type varies latitudinally between low, middle and high Arctic, but everywhere it is the influence of local habitat variations that is paramount in determining the community patterns. The ecotone from forest to tundra is rarely abrupt and outliers of forest trees may occur on well drained sites to considerable distances beyond the forest edge — stunted white or black spruce (tamarack) in Canada, Dahurian larch in Siberia and the low birch, Betula odorata, in Scandinavia.
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References and further reading
Aleksandrova, V. D. 1980. The Artic and the Antarctic: their division into geobotanical areas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Andreyer, V. N. 1981. Influence of man on tundra vegetation. In Tundra ecosystems: a comparative analysis, L. C. Bliss, O. W. Heal and J. Moor (eds). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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© 1988 A. S. Collinson
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Collinson, A.S. (1988). Arctic and alpine tundra. In: Introduction to World Vegetation. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3935-7_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-3935-7_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
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