A new book about the Arctic flora by botanists Igor and Elena Pospelov, research associates of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Taimyr Nature Reserves" (Krasnoyarsk Krai), which manages the Bolshoy Arktichesky, Taimyrsky, and Putoransky Nature Reserves, has been published, reports the press service of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Roszapovedtsentr.
The publication "Flora of Vascular Plants of the Anabar-Kotuysky Mountain Range and Its Northern Framing" is intended for general botanists, botanical geographers, specialists in the flora and vegetation of the northern Subarctic, as well as people interested in studying Arctic nature.
The text is illustrated with photographs of the landscapes of the territory and individual plant species, including those listed in the Red Books of Russia and the region.
During the long-term work on the book, a large volume of work was carried out on the inventory of the flora of the north of the Anabar-Kotuysky mountain range, as well as its comparison with the studied floras of both the protected areas of Taimyr, the Putorana Plateau, and the adjacent areas of the north of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
The monograph provides an annotated list of plants growing in the northern Anabar-Kotuysky mountain range and adjacent forest-tundra areas, the flora of which had previously been almost unexplored.
“Thanks to the many years of work of our colleagues, which took place in the difficult conditions of Arctic expeditions and painstaking office work, the knowledge base about the flora of such a difficult region for researchers as the north of Central Siberia was once again replenished with valuable scientific information. Such publications fill the scientific baggage of knowledge about the flora of the Arctic and the nature of our region,” said Mikhail Bondar, Deputy Director for Science and Environmental Education of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Taimyr Nature Reserves”.
According to the estimation of the scientist, the publication will generate great interest in scientific circles.
It provides a general physical and geographical description of the territory under study (geology, relief, climate, hydrological objects), and for the first time describes the vegetation of 29 key areas.
“Of great scientific value is the fact that, during many years of field work, botanists not only identified the diversity of vascular plants in the study area, but also divided it into regions with different species compositions, characterized the features of these floras, and compared them with the floras of adjacent territories in the north of Central Siberia,” explained Mikhail Bondar.
One of the results of the analysis was the conclusion about the highest similarity of the flora of the Anabar-Kotuysky massif with the flora of the east of the Putorana mountain range.
Every year, scientists of the Taimyr protected areas discover up to several dozen new species for the flora of such large physical-geographical regions as the Putorana Plateau, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the north of Central Siberia as a whole.
Often, the newly discovered species are entered into the Red Book: alpine woodsia, few-flowered sedge, Cardamine macrophyla, Draba sambukii, Oxytropis putorana, Oxytropis tichomirovii, Oxytropis czekanowskii, Eritrichium arctisibiricum, Eritrichium sericeum, Saussurea denticulata.
Over the past few years, Igor and Elena Pospelov have made a number of important floristic discoveries. In 2020, a new species for science was discovered on the territory of the Putorana Nature Reserve - Astragalus guleminskii, subsequently listed in the Red Book of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
And in 2024, scientists described for the first time the northernmost population of a rare orchid species - Calypso bulbosa, listed in the Red Book of Russia.
The monograph "Flora of vascular plants of the Anabar-Kotuy mountain range and its northern framing" is available for download: http://byrranga.ru/docs/anabar_kotuy_flora_final.pdf
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The publication is an addition to the monographs previously published by these authors - "Flora of vascular plants of Taimyr and adjacent territories" and "Flora of vascular plants of the World Heritage Site "Putorana Plateau" and its buffer zone", which now cover a huge region, characterizing the diversity of vascular plants of almost the entire north of Central Siberia.