Impacts of geomorphic disturbances on plant colonization in Ebba Valley, central Spitsbergen, Svalbard
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Date
2017
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Wydział Nauk Geograficznych i Geologicznych Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza
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Abstract
Global warming observed nowadays causes an increase in geomorphic activity in polar regions. Within
the areas influenced by cold climatic conditions, relief dynamics and vegetation development are the main landscape
shaping processes. The study is limited to the Ebba Valley (78°43’N; 16°37’E) in central Spitsbergen (Svalbard), where
geomorphologic observations and vegetation sampling were conducted in 2007. The valley was divided into three
zones differentiated by dominating geomorphic activity and stability of deposits. The settlement and the evolution
of plant cover have been documented there. The main factors that control well developed vegetation cover within
raised marine terraces are frost heave and solifluction. In deeper parts of the valley, aeolian processes dominate and
high differentiation of microsite conditions causes high variability in plant coverage. The area close to the Ebba glacier
marginal zone is characterized by initial stages of plant colonisation where disturbance to vegetation is mainly caused
by hydrological processes.
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Keywords
plant colonization, glacier foreland, climate change, Spitsbergen
Citation
Quaestiones Geographicae vol. 36 (1), 2017, pp. 51-64