Relação Solo-Vegetação em Felsenmeers de Harmony Point – Ilha Nelson, Antártica Marítima.

Abstract

Antarctic Maritime is one of the main terrestrial ecosystems in the world dominated mainly by non-vascular plants (lichens and mosses), which represent important ecological indicators of climate change. The main objective of this study was to describe non-vascular plant communities and types of species associations along the felsenmeers located in the northern area of the Harmony Point peninsula, Nelson Island. During the southern summer of 2018/19, fieldwork was carried out at Harmony Point, Nelson Island that makes up the archipelago of the South Shetlands Islands in Maritime Antarctica. The sample square method was used to survey phytosociology and describe communities. In all, 70 squares were sampled and 19 families were found, divided into 12 species of bryophytes, 21 species of lichens and a species of macroscopic algae. The species Sanionia uncinata forms communities with high levels of ecological significance and the nitrophilic lichen Acarospora macrocyclos is present in all felsenmeers. Throughout the seven sampled felsenmeers, four moss carpet communities, two moss / fruit lichen carpet communities and a moss / macroalgae carpet community were identified. For the two environments defined based on the presence or absence of current nesting, the carpeted Mossy Lichen community was identified. The environment with abandoned nests is the most diversified, due to its higher Shannon index and greater equability. Pielou's equability explains a tendency towards greater maximum uniformity of species in felsenmeers. The greatest diversity (H '= 2.6) of vegetation in the carpeted community of Moss/fruticosa Lichen is on the deposition of material from guano. The results of this study reveal that there are different types of plant communities and types of associations of non-vascular plants along the analyzed felsenmeers. The results suggest that there is a high variability in the spatial distribution of species richness and composition at small scales, among Nelson island felsenmeers.