Login | Datasets | Logout
 

View Community Concepts - Detail

A.1117 | EcoArt 2002
  click to update datacart
Name: A.1117
Reference: EcoArt 2002
Description: Communities within this alliance occur in alpine meadows or on high mountain peaks. They range in elevation from 2900-4000 m. Landforms that support these communities are typically of gentle topography, with northerly aspects. They occur where snow lingers into the spring and summer, in places such as lees of cliffs and boulders, secondary slopes, and shallow depressions. Some stands also occur on moist gravel slopes and terraces or along stony margins of streams or lakes, thriving among coarse rock margins with almost no soil. Communities within this alliance are defined as cold-deciduous dwarf-shrublands. They are dominated by ~Salix arctica$, which forms a thick canopy with a mat-forming growth form seldom rising more than 5 cm above the ground. ~Salix reticulata$ occasionally is found as a codominant in the dwarf-shrub layer. These shrubs occur with a mix of forbs and graminoids, including ~Carex pyrenaica, Geum rossii, Polygonum bistortoides, Sibbaldia procumbens, Erigeron melanocephalus, Agrostis rossiae$, and ~Juncus drummondii$. Several bryophyte and lichen species have been reported from Longs Peak, Colorado. On James Peak, Colorado, ~Salix arctica$ did not receive any competition and dominated with a mat-forming growth form. In the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico there was a conspicuous absence of cushion plants associated with ~Salix arctica$ communities. 
Accession Code: VB.CC.890.A1117
Plot-observations of this Community Concept: 0
      Party Perspective according to: NatureServe (organization)
Perspective from: 26-Nov-1997 to: 17-Mar-2005
     
  • status: accepted
  • Community's Parent: IV.B.2.N.b
  • This Community's Level: Alliance
  • This Community's Children: [none]
Names:   Scientific: SALIX ARCTICA DWARF-SHRUBLAND ALLIANCE
  Code: A.1117
  Common: Arctic Willow Dwarf-shrubland Alliance
(convergence) and Synonyms:
(undetermined) Salix arctica Dwarf-shrubland Alliance