The flora and vegetation of Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T.

Bridgland, James Parsons (1987) The flora and vegetation of Cape Herschel, Ellesmere Island, N.W.T. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[img] [English] PDF (Migrated (PDF/A Conversion) from original format: (application/pdf)) - Accepted Version
Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.

Download (20MB)
  • [img] [English] PDF - Accepted Version
    Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission.
    (Original Version)

Abstract

Botanical explorations at Cape Herschel, a small peninsula on the relatively oceanic coast of eastern Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories, have yielded a flora which includes 68 species of vascular plants, 121 species of mosses, and 44 species of lichens. -- Field typification of seven vegetation types was tested with cluster analysis and the seven types were divided into eleven plant communities. Diagnostic species were identified for each community using species constancy and mean abundance in each cluster. Environmental factors determining the distribution of plant communities at Cape Herschel were tested with direct gradient analysis and with topographic analysis. -- Floristic comparison of plant communities at Cape Herschel with those described from elsewhere in the Queen Elizabeth Islands identified 11 communities which appear to correspond directly enough to be useful for the purposes of regional vegetation mapping. A twelfth community was identified it Cape Herschel but it was not comparable to communites described elsewhere. -- Moisture, snowcover, and substrate texture have the greatest influence, in that order, on the distribution of vegetation types at Cape Herschel. Altitude and aspect were also found to control the distribution of vegetation. -- Cassiope heath, cottongrass and sedge meadows, and Luzula confusa steppe were the communities at Cape Herschel which were floristically most similar to communities described from other areas of the Queen Elizabeth Islands, but two barrens communities, two tundra communities, and a marsh community also show some similarity to communities described elsewhere.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
URI: http://research.library.mun.ca/id/eprint/4177
Item ID: 4177
Additional Information: Bibliography: leaves 111-122.
Department(s): Science, Faculty of > Biology
Date: 1987
Date Type: Submission
Geographic Location: Canada--Nunavut--Ellesmere Island--Cape Herschel
Library of Congress Subject Heading: Botany--Nunavut--Ellesmere Island--Cape Herschel; Lichens--Nunavut--Ellesmere Island--Cape Herschel; Mosses--Nunavut--Ellesmere Island--Cape Herschel

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over the past year

View more statistics