Description of plant communities on Half Moon Island, Antarctica

ABSTRACT

During February–March of the austral summers of 2013/14 and 2014/2015, fieldwork was performed on Half Moon Island, South Shetland Archipelago, Antarctica, to evaluate the distribution and abundance of mosses and lichens, as well as to describe and map the plant communities there. The quadrat (20 × 20 cm) sampling method was employed in a phytosociological study that aimed to describe these communities. The area was mapped using an Astech Promark II® DGPS, yielding sub-metric precision after post-processing with software. The number of species totalled 38 bryophytes, 59 lichens, only one flowering plant (Deschampsia antarctica Desv.), and two macroscopic terrestrial algae. Five types of plant communities were identified on the island, as follows: (1) fruticose lichen and moss cushion, (2) moss carpet, (3) muscicolous lichen, (4) crustose lichen and (5) moss turf.

KEYWORDS:

• Phytosociology
• Antarctic plant distribution
• bryophytes
• lichens
• plant community mapping

ABBREVIATION:

• IES: index of ecological significance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Brazilian Antarctic Program through the National Council for Research and Development (CNPq; process no. 574018/2008), the Research Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ; process E-26/170.023/2008), the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), the Interministerial Commission for Sea Resources (CIRM), and the Foundation for Research Support of Rio Grande do Sul State (FAPERGS), from which the authors appreciate the financial and logistic support that was needed to carry out this work. We also would like to acknowledge the Argentine Camara Base crew, under the command of Capitán de Corbeta de Infantería de Marina Hector Daniel Baez Mannino, and thank the Argentine Antarctic Program for the facilities arranged for us during our stay on Half Moon Island.