Check List 17(1): 181-225, doi: 10.15560/17.1.181
Survey of the vascular plants of Alert (Ellesmere Island, Canada), a polar desert at the northern tip of the Americas
expand article infoÉmilie Desjardins§|, Sandra Lai§|, Serge Payette#, Martin Dubé¤, Paul C. Sokoloff«, Annie St-Louis», Marie-Pier Poulin§˄, Jade Legros§, Luc Sirois, François Vézina|, Andrew Tam˅, Dominique Berteaux§|
‡ Département de biologie, chimie et géographie, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Canada§ Canada Research Chair on Northern Biodiversity, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Canada| Centre for Northern Studies, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Canada¶ Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science, Université du Québec à Rimouski, Rimouski, Canada# Département de biologie, Centre for Northern Studies, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada¤ Independent researcher, Saint-Jacques, Canada« Centre for Arctic Knowledge and Exploration, Canadian Museum of Nature, Gatineau, Canada» Herbier Louis-Marie, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada˄ Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, United States of America˅ Department of National Defence, 8 Wing Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Astra, Canada
Open Access
Abstract

Long-term monitoring is critical to guide conservation strategies and assess the impacts of climatic changes and anthropogenic activities. In High Arctic ecosystems, information on distribution and population trends of plants is dramatically lacking. During two field expeditions in 2018 and 2019, we conducted a systematic floristic survey together with opportunistic collecting in the polar desert surrounding Alert (Nunavut, Canada) to update past vascular plant inventories. We recorded 58 species, of which 54 species were recorded over the last seven decades, and four species that are additions to the local flora (Draba pauciflora R. Brown, Festuca edlundiae S.G. Aiken, Consaul, & Lefkovitch, Festuca hyperborea Holmen ex Frederiksen, and ×Pucciphippsia vacillans (T. Fries) Tzvelev). With the addition of 19 species that were previously reported but not found in our survey, we estimate the species richness in the study area at 77 species.

Keywords
Arctic endemic species, Floristic inventory, High Arctic, imperiled species, northern distribution