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Vascular flora of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, westernmost Alaska Peninsula, Alaska

January 1, 2006

The vascular flora of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), where few previous collections had been reported, was collected and recorded at sites selected to represent the totality of environmental variation. A total of 349 species (339 native and 10 introduced) was identified. To provide a comparative phytogeographic framework, we analyzed data from published reports that categorized vascular plant distribution patterns from a circumpolar, North American, and Alaskan perspective. The native flora of the Izembek NWR primarily includes species of circumpolar (38%), eastern Asian (23%), Eurasian (18%), and North American (13%) distribution. The most important longitudinal distributional classes in North America consist of transcontinental (62%) and extreme western species (31%). The annotated list of species in Izembek NWR expands the range of many species, filling a distributional gap in Hulte??n's Western Pacific Coast district. Forty notable range extensions are reported. The flora of Izembek NWR is primarily made up of boreal species and lacks many of the species considered to be Arctic. Comparison with the Raunkiaer life-form spectrum similarly points to the boreal.

Publication Year 2006
Title Vascular flora of Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, westernmost Alaska Peninsula, Alaska
DOI 10.3119/0035-4902(2006)108[249:VFOINW]2.0.CO;2
Authors Stephen S. Talbot, Sandra Looman Talbot, Wilfred B. Schofield
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Rhodora
Index ID 70030468
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Alaska Science Center