Alpine vascular flora of the Tushar Mountains, Utah

The Tushar Mountains of southwestern Utah rise to a maximum elevation of 3709 m, with timberline and krummholz reaching maximum elevations of 3438 m and 3566 m, respectively. Voucher specimens were collected from the alpine region during eight field seasons to inventory this largely unknown alpine flora. Listed are 171 vascular plant species from 102 genera and 34 families that occur in eight types of plant communities within an alpine area of about 19.3 km 2 , the seven largest families are Asteraceae (29 species), Poacea (20), Brassicaceae (13), Rosaceae (12), Cyperaceae (11), Caryophyllaceae (10), and Fabaceae (8). Thirteen species are restricted to the alpine area. The perennial herb growth form accounts for 86.4% of the flora, 5.9% of the species are shrubs, and the remaining species are annuls to short-lived perennials. Bedrock at the alpine region is entirely of Tertiary igneous origin. Vegetation cover and species richness are highest on an andesite ash-flow tuff and latite flow and lowest on hydrothermally altered intercaldera rhyolites and tuffs. Forty-four species (26.0% of the indigenous flora) also occur in the Arctic, and 13 species are at a southern margin of distribution. Eight taxa (4.7% of the flora) are local or regional endemics. The majority of the alpine species appear to have migrated to the range by way of the contiguous mountain system to the north; statistical comparison with neighboring alpine floras shows the flora to be most similar to the floras of the Wasatch Mountains, Uinta Mountains, and Teton Range, with Sorensen's similarity indices of 52.8, 50.2, and 48.8% respectively.     

Tundra vegetation of three cirque basins in the northern San Juan Mountains, Colorado

The vegetation of three alpine cirque basins in the northern San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado was inventoried and analyzed for the degree of specificity shown by vascular plant communities for certain types of habitats identified as representative of the basins. A total of 197 vascular plant species representing 31 families was inventoried. Growth forms of all species were noted and a growth form spectrum for all of the communities was derived. The caespitose monocot and erect dicot growth forms are the most important growth forms among the community dominants. The most common growth form among all species is the rosette dicot.           

Alpine vascular flora of the Ruby Range, West Elk Mountains, Colorado

The Ruby Range is a northern extension of the West Elk Mountains of west central Colorado. Composed primarily of sedimentary rocks, the range is heavily faulted and intruded by many dikes and sills. Eight study areas, selected as representative of the major topographic features of the range, were analyzed floristically. A vascular flora of 220 species in 111 genera and 35 families is reported. The phytogeographic distribution of the flora is primarily alpine and western North American. The flora of the Ruby Range shows a 74% similarity to the flora of the San Juan Mountains to the southwest.     

Vascular flora of Kane Lake Cirque, Pioneer Mountains, Idaho

Kane Lake Cirque lies in the western Pioneer Mountains of south central Idaho. An inventory of the high elevation flora of the cirque revealed the presence of 180 vascular taxa representing 95 genera and 30 families. Five alpine taxa are here documented from Idaho for the first time: Carex incurviformis Mack., Draba fladnizensis Wilfen., Potentilla nivea L., Ranunculus gelidus Kar. & Kir., and Ranunculus pygmaeus Wahlenb. Kane Lake Cirque also contains populations of four additional alpine taxa considered to be of conservation concern in Idaho: Erigeron humilis Graham, Parnassia kotzebuei Cham., Saxifraga adscendens L., and Saxifraga cernua L.     

Flora of the Stansbury Mountains, Utah

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The Stansbury Mountains of north central Utah rise over 2000 m above surrounding desert valleys to a maximum elevation of 3362 m on Deseret Peak. Because of the great variety of environmental conditions that can be found in the Stansburys, a wide range of plant species and vegetation types (from shadscale desert to alpine meadow) exist there. This paper presents an annotated list of 594 vascular plant species in 315 genera and 78 families. The largest families are Asteraceae (98 species), Poaceae (71), Brassicaceae (33), Fabaceae (27), and Rosaceae (26). Elymus flavescens was previously unreported from Utah. Statistical comparison of the Stansbury flora with neighboring mountain floras indicates that the Wasatch Mountains lying 65 km to the east have probably been the primary source area for development of the Stansbury flora. Many lowland species, especially those inhabiting sandy areas, apparently have migrated to the area from the south.     

Plants of Angel Island, Marin County, California

The floristic composition of Angel Island, Marin County, California, is presented. The vascular flora consists of 416 native and naturalized plants, representing 252 genera and 73 families. Eighty species of ornamental plants persisting from cultivation, representing 64 genera and 39 families, are also identified. The nonvascular flora consists of 42 species of fungi, 7 species of green algae, 8 species of brown algae, and 41 species of red algae. The vascular flora occurs in seven plant communities and is composed mainly of the following plant types: forbs (69 percent), grasses (13 percent), shrubs (8 percent), and trees (4 percent). Approximately 25 percent of the 1605 native and naturalized vascular plants of Marin County occur on Angel Island.       

1993 update, checklist of the vascular plants of Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

An updated checklist of the vascular flora of Bryce Canyon National Park is presented, including 458 species arranged in 232 genera and 73 families. Four species have been added to the part list based on 1991 fieldwork: Arabis perennans , Arceuthobium divaricatum , Gentiana parryi , and Haplopappus acaulis . Recent changes in nomenclature have been included, and several species identifications have been corrected. The six largest families are, in decreasing size, Asteraceace, Pocaceae, Fabaceae, Brassicaceae, Scrophulariaceae, and Rosaceae. Common names and an index are provided.     

A checklist of the vascular plants of the House Range, Utah

A checklist of the vascular plants of the House Range, Juab and Millard counties, Utah, is presented. A flora of 373 species and infraspecific taxa in 231 genera and 60 families are reported. The geology, physiography, climate, and plant communities are briefly discussed. Several endemics occur in the study area and a new taxon has been described.     

Flora of the Lee Creek valley, Alberta

The floristic composition of the Lee Creek valley in southwestern Alberta, Canada, is presented. The valley flora consists of 299 species of vascular plants representing 173 genera and 46 families. The flora is dominated by forbs (73 percent), followed by grasses (24 percent), shrubs (12 percent), and trees (11 percent). The valley of Lee Creek is divided into upper and lower sections on the basis of elevational, climatic, and biotic differences. Floristic richness of the Lee Creek valley is quite evenly divided between the upper and lower valleys: 105 species limited to the upper valley, 95 to the lower valley, and 99 species shared by both upper and lower valleys.     

The marine red algae of Rodrigues (Mauritius,Indian Ocean)

This paper reports on the red algae of Rodrigues, collected in the framework of the Shoals of Capricorn Programme (10 September to 5 October 2001). In total 68 species are reported, of which 65 represent new records for the island. Although most taxa represent rather common species, which are generally widespread in the Indian and western Pacific Ocean, some are of special interest to algal systematists and biogeographers. Renouxia antillana is reported for the first time for the Indian Ocean. The presence of Renouxia also constitutes the first record of the order Rhodogorgonales for the entire Indian Ocean. A few species have interesting distribution patterns. Halydictyon sp. is restricted in its distribution to South Africa, Mauritius and Australia. Despite these interesting records, the red algal flora of Rodrigues is most remarkable by the absence of several ‘ubiquitous' species.     

Arctic species of the cheilostome bryozoan Microporella,with a redescription of the type species

This investigation focuses on the diversity and taxonomy of species of Microporella found north of the Arctic Circle. Firstly, however, a neotype is chosen for the Mediterranean type species M. ciliata (Pallas) in order to stabilize the taxonomy of this “pseudocosmopolitan” species, which has been recorded in the past from the Arctic. Study of type and other material using scanning electron microscopy shows that only two Arctic species of Microporella can be recognized, M. arctica Norman and M. klugei sp. nov. The first of these is characterized by a large ascopore divided by thin radial septa and situated close to the proximal rim of the orifice. Microporella klugei sp. nov. differs in having a smaller, undivided ascopore situated in a more proximal position on the frontal shield. Both Arctic species are notable among Microporella species for having a high proportion of autozooids without associated avicularia.     

Plants of Navajo National Monument

The floristic composition of Navajo National Monument is presented. The flora of the monument consists of 293 species of vascular plants, representing 177 genera and 66 families. The species are scattered throughout 12 plant communities found within the monument. The flora is dominated by forbs (60 percent), followed by shrubs (16 percent), grasses (12 percent) and trees (5 percent). Betatakin canyon exhibits the greatest floristic richness with 223 species being represented and 123 species found only in that area. This is due primarily to two factors: (1) the greater variety of habitats available in the area, and (2) the much longer time the area has been protected from grazing and other manmade disturbance.     

On Liljeborgia fissicornis (M. Sars, 1858) and three related new species from Scandinavia,with a hypothesis on the origin of the group fissicornis

The large and common Scandinavian amphipod Liljeborgia fissicornis (M. Sars) is split into four species: the deep-water L. caliginis sp. nov. and L. charybdis sp. nov., and the shallow-water L. fissicornis and L. ossiani sp. nov. The poorly known species L. polosi Barnard and Karaman, recorded from the deep Canadian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, is considered as belonging to the same group. All those northern species are completely devoid of eyes, while similar species from the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic continental shelf do have eyes. It is hypothesized that the group fissicornis, which is specific to cold waters, derives from ancestors living on the continental shelf of the Southern Ocean. These ancestors would have adapted to deep-sea environments, losing their eyes completely. Then they would have migrated northwards through the cold abyss, and reached the cold but shallow waters of the Arctic/sub-Arctic continental shelf, without redeveloping visual organs.     

Distribution and abundance of birds in the White Mountains, California

This paper quantifies the distribution and abundance of birds in the White Mountains, Inyo and Mono counties, California, during spring-summer 1989-91, to establish a baseline for monitoring the area's avifauna. Overall 58 species were encountered in the single-leaf pinyon-Utah juniper ( Pinus monophylla-Juniperus osteosperma ) zone, and 61 species in the bristlecone-limber pine ( P. longaeva-P. flexilis ) zone. The bristlecone-limber pine zone had a significantly greater overall bird abundance relative to the pinyon-juniper. Both zones were characterized by few very abundant species, a few moderately abundant species, and numerous rare species. The Black-throated Gray Warbler (scientific names in tables), Gray Flycatcher, and Pinyon Jay were the most abundant species in the pinyon-juniper whereas the Clark's Nutcracker, Mountain Chickadee, and Cassin's Finch were the most abundant species in the bristlecone-limber pine. There were few ecological or taxonomic replacements of species between zones, with the differences in distribution and abundance related primarily to the interaction between elevation and vegetation. Significant inter-year variation in abundance was found for about 20 species in each zone—more species showed declining rather than increasing trends. The Mountain Chickadee and White-breasted Nuthatch declined, whereas the Gray Flycatcher and Rock Wren increased across years in both zones. Reasons for declines in some species might be the severe drought that continued throughout this study.     

Macrobenthic communities in water bodies and streams of Svalbard,Norway

Diversity of macrobenthic communities was studied from water bodies and streams of Spitsbergen, Svalbard archipelago, Norway. In total 162 quantitative samples from different regions of Spitsbergen were analysed in relation to environmental variables. Macrobenthic communities were found on all kinds of substrates (except for the periglacial zone), representing a wide range of biological communities: solid-bottom, soft-bottom, macrophytes and small brook associated. However, taxonomical structure is very simplified, with particular dominance of the Chironomidae family. Chironomid larvae dominated highly in diversity, abundance and biomass. Overall macrobenthic communities were characteristic, with remarkable dominance of one species and general omnipresent taxonomical scarcity (average 2.8 species per sample). In total we found 30 taxa. We distinguished 16 types of macrobenthis communities, with characteristic dominance of different taxa: chironomids (11 types), oligochaete Enchytraeidae family (3), caddisfly Apatania zonella (1) and gammarid amphipod Gammarus setosus (1). Regarding environmental variables, temperature and pH had the most significant influence on the abundance of macrobenthic organisms. It is hypothesized that the structural convergence of different types of communities is their common response to extreme high Arctic living conditions. On the other hand, different chironomids may dominate in the same habitats and water bodies. This gives the effect of lower average similarity of communities and high β-diversity.     

Floristic analysis of the southwestern United States

A study was made of the distributions of native, terrestrial, vascular plants occurring in 50 local floras from throughout the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces of the southwestern United States. The objectives of the study were to objectively define and describe the floristic elements-assemblages of species with roughly coincident geographic distribution-occurring in the southwestern United States and to determine what such assemblages reveal about the floristic history of the region. The total flora (native, terrestrial species only) of the Southwest is estimated at 5,458 species, 77% of which were recorded in 1 or more of the local floras. Nearly 22% of these species are endemic to the study region. A majority of the species were found to be relatively rare. The average range of a species included only 4 floras, and 90% of the species were recorded from 11 or fewer floras; only 81 species (1.5%) were recorded from 50% or more of the floras. Trees constitute 2% of the regional flora and have the widest average distribution; perennial herbs constitute 59% of the flora and have the most restricted distributions.  Factor analysis was used to identify seven floristic elements for the region: a Great Basin element, a Mojavean element, a Colorado Plateau element, a Chihuahuan element, an Apachian element, and a Mogollon element. This factor analysis solution was shown to satisfy criteria of interpretability and consistency. The Mojavean, Colorado Plateau, and Apachian elements are believed to be autochthonous. The other four elements show high overlap in species composition with one or more adjacent regions. Each floristic element is mapped to show its geographic form and distribution. Analysis of these maps shows how the existence of objectively defined floristic elements is not contradictory to either the individualistic view of the distribution of a species or local continuity of vegetation and flora. The rarity of the majority of species and the clear association of floristic elements with rather narrowly circumscribed Holocene environments suggests that many Southwestern species have migrated little and are of rather recent, probably postglacial origin. Geographic “principles” derived from the distribution patterns of relatively few, widespread, dominant, usually woody species may not be applicable to entire, regional floras.       

The montane bee fauna of north central Washington, USA, with floral associations

The mountains of north central Washington contain a variety of habitat types, from shrubsteppe to high alpine meadows. While native bee surveys of some surrounding areas like the Columbia Basin are fairly complete, little work has been done in the mountains of north central Washington to document the diversity of bees found therein. We conducted a survey of native bees in the Tonasket Ranger District of the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest during summer 2004. Collections yielded a diverse bee fauna (140 species in 24 genera) visiting diverse floral elements (57 plant species in 18 families). These preliminary data suggest that a rich bee fauna exists in the Okanogan Basin and surrounding mountains.     

Prey selection by Australian wasps of the genus Cerceris (Hymenoptera,Sphecidae)

Prey records are presented for 17 Australian species of the digger wasp genus Cerceris. Collectively beetles of 10 families were found to serve as prey. Several species appear to be specialists, taking only members of certain genera or subfamilies, while others accept members of several families. It is common to find several species nesting together in areas of suitable substrate. In such areas it is evidently to the advantage of all species either to specialize to ‘share’ the available beetle prey or to become generalists, taking advantage of whatever beetles of suitable size are abundant in the surrounding vegetation.     

Flora of the Orange Cliffs of Utah

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The vascular flora of the Orange Cliffs area, defined here as part of the Colorado Plateau floristic province, harbors approximately 209 species in 123 genera and 49 families. A species checklist is provided with a discussion of physical and floristic aspects of the region. The flora is compared statistically to the San Rafael Swell flora, which is also a subset of the Colorado Plateau. We define six vegetation types and three edaphic communities; these are described and mapped. Of eleven endemic plant species in the Orange Cliffs, three are local and rare. Sites for Astragalus nidularius, A. moencoppensis, and Xylorhiza glabriuscula var. linearifolia are discussed and mapped.