The retrospective of study of the Far North vegetation at the Komarov Botanical institute RAS for the one and half century and prospects for the XXI
Authors: Matveyeva N. V. 
Published: February 2020

The history of the plant cover studies of the Far North in the Komarov Botanical Institute (BIN) and its predecessors dates back to the second third of the XIX century and it is associated with the names of two eminent botanists — A. Schrenk and F. Ruprecht, who in 1837 and 1841 years made their long trips to the north of the European part of Russia. A long break in the study of the Arctic, which came after that, has been resumed within our institute only in the Soviet period.

Already before the Great Patriotic war the scientific expeditions were organized both on the European North and on the Asian part of the Arctic up to the eastern borders of the country. In the 1920–1930th the brightest star in the sky of the Russian tundrology – B. N. Gorodkov worked on the vast area fr om the Kola Peninsula up to the Wrangel Island. This vigorous activity resulted in excellent descriptions of plant cover, and the classic, still actively quoted monograph «The vegetation of the tundra zone of the USSR» was published in 1935. In 1930–1931 years a lot of scientists (F. V. Sambuk, A. I. Leskov, K. N. Igoshina, M. N. Avramchik, V. P. Savich, Z. N. Smirnova and others) participated in various botanical expeditions (the Franz Josef Land, the Novaya Zemlya, the Kolguev Isl., the Malozemelskaya tundra, the interior parts of Taymyr Peninsula).

The Great Patriotic war had interrupted botanical work in the Arctic. However the numerous expeditions took place as early as in the first post-war years (1946– 1949). At that time, besides mentioned researchers, B. A. Tikhomirov has already participated in these studies. Later (1952) B. A. headed the Sector of North, transformed in 1960 into the Laboratory of the vegetation of Far North. This Laboratory is the exclusive botanical team not only in Russia but throughout the world, which all over its existence was being specialized in comprehensive study of plant cover in the Arctic, coordinating the northern investigations within the whole country.

The outstanding achievement, received international recognition, is undoubtedly the multi-volume edition «Arctic Flora of the USSR» (1960–1987), initiated by the eminent botanist A. I. Tolmachev and completed through intense activity by B. A. Yurtsev. This great work, later translated into English, was done during the large-scale floristic studies in different regions of the Asian Arctic fr om the Yamal, Gydan and Taymyr peninsulas in the west to Chukotka in the east. The implementation of annual field work became possible due to the establishment of Polar Expedition, funded by a «separate item» within the budget of the Institute.

A period fr om 1966 to 1991 year without exaggeration may be called as «golden age» in the study of vegetation of the Russian Arctic. This was a time when not only numerous research teams carrying out the floristic studies, but up to 3 long-term research stations simultaneously worked in one field season. The durable stationary studies were performed in the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra (Sivaya Maska), on the Taymyr Peninsula (Tareya and Agapa settlements and Ary-Mas forest «island»), Putorana plateau (Kapchuk lake) and Wrangel Island (Somnitelnaya Bay). According to the results of these stationary studies 11 collective Proceedings have been published. Most lasting (1965–1977) and large-scale investigations were biogeocenological studies at the «Tareya» station, wh ere in the period of the International Biological Program the organizational skills by B. A. Tikhomirov collected up to 40 specialists from different branches of biology and ecology. In the years 1972–1991 these works were continued on Taymyr Peninsula at 6 short-term field stations at the latitudinal gradient from southern tundra up to polar deserts, which became the basis for a comprehensive study of zonation display in the living cover. As a result of extensive studies by the method of concrete floras the data on the composition of vascular plants for nearly 170 sites in all latitude-zonal stripes of Asian North from Yamal up to Chukotka has been obtained. At present these data are the fundamental basis for work on the detailed floristic subdivisions that was started by the great trio — B. A. Yurtsev, A. I. Tolmachev and O. V. Rebristaya in their famous paper «Arctic floristic region» (1978).

The end of the last and the beginning of this century became a time of summing up the study of arctic flora and vegetation. The checklists of fungi, lichens, mosses and liverworts of Russian Arctic were compiled; the monographs on the vascular flora of Chukotka and Yamal as well as the book on mosses of Chukotka were published. The electronic version of Pan-Arctic flora and the Circumpolar vegetation map of the Arctic were prepared with the active participation of BIN florists and geobotanists. In the last ten years the obvious lack of information on the diversity of plant communities at the vast arctic territory is being compensated by publishing the numerous papers on syntaxonomy.

The intensity of field works, declined sharply in the early 1990s, still continues, albeit in smaller scale. For the first time in the history of the study of the Far North nature the recurrent botanical observations were made in few sites wh ere many-sided studies were performed in the past. This allows assessing the dynamics in the flora and vegetation in situ. The changes in plant cover are well recorded by the earth’s surface remote sensing using multispectral satellite imagery. The analysis of image series allows us to monitor changes in intra-landscape vegetation patterns as well as some technological and cryogenic transformations. In the development of the concepts of classical Arctic and Antarctic geobotanical subdivision suggested by V. D. Aleksandrova for higher system units, the work on the designation of the lower units is being intensified presently. An assessment of current environmental safety of Arctic ecosystems in the areas with heavy anthropogenic load caused by oil and gas production will be the most required in the nearest future. However, there are still large areas within the vast Arctic territories wh ere classic fundamental studies are necessary to close the «white spots» in our knowledge of plant cover. The growing geopolitical interest to the Arctic region gives the hope for the revival of full-scale researches, which are impossible without adequate funding. More than one and a half century of brilliant botanical investigations in the Arctic were carried out by our famous predecessors. This fact allows us to look optimistically for the future and expect the growth of the scientific activities in the Far North.