A SURVEY OF PLANT ASSOCIATIONS AND ALLIANCES FROM SVALBARD

Most vegetation classification studies on Svalbard have followed the phytosociological tradition. Exposed ridges and accumulation sea shores are the habitats investigated best, whereas the open Vegetation of screes, active sedimentation plains, erosion plains, young moraines, polar desert and saxicolous vegetation range from almost unknown to poorly known. All published associations and non-ranked plant communities based on releve data are reviewed and discussed in an ecological framework with 19 major habitat types. Most of them are arranged in a system of 17 alliances. Most of the alliances are expected to occur elsewhere in the Arctic, but this remains to be documented. The majority of the Svalbard studies are local and have obvious shortcomings. Nevertheless, vegetation types are probably better known on Svalbard than elsewhere in the northern parts of the Arctic.