Subject: BEN # 213

From: Adolf Ceska <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 01:15:54 -0800 (PST)

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No. 213                              January 19, 1999

[email-masked]                Victoria, B.C.
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 Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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ALASKA RARE PLANT FORUM - ANCHORAGE, APRIL 8 AND 9, 1999
From: Stensvold_Mary/[email-masked]

The  Alaska  Rare  Plant  Forum  will hold its annual meeting on
April 8 and 9 in Anchorage at the office of the Chugach National
Forest in the Calais II Building at 3301 'C' Street, Suite  300.
Anyone  interested in rare plants of northern regions is invited
to attend or to give a presentation.

We are also soliciting speakers and agenda items.  Agenda  items
could  include the results of your 1998 field work, descriptions
of your field trips, proposals for 1999 field work and presenta-
tions describing your ongoing botanical work. If you would  like
to  give a presentation, please send your name, a brief descrip-
tion of your presentation  and  the  presentation's  approximate
length.  We  also would appreciate hearing about any topics that
you would like to see added to  the  agenda.  Please  send  this
information to:

   Mary Stensvold,
   U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Alaska Region
   204 Siginaka Way
   Sitka, Alaska  99835
   telephone:  (907) 747-6671
   e-mail:  mstensvold/[email-masked]

   or

   John Delapp
   U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Chugach National Forest
   3301 'C' Street, Suite 300
   Anchorage, Alaska  99503
   telephone:  (907) 271-2500
   e-mail: jdelapp/[email-masked]

We  will  send  out an agenda in mid-March. Please contact us if
you need any additional information, you wish to give a  presen-
tation,  or if you have ideas for agenda items. Exciting botani-
cal work is taking place in our part of the world,  so  we  look
forward to a particularly interesting meeting of the Alaska Rare
Plant Forum.

POSITION OPEN: PLANT TAXONOMY - UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN

The  University  of  Saskatchewan  invites  applications  for  a
faculty position in plant taxonomy/biodiversity at the level  of
Assistant Professor, commencing July 1, 1999.

This  is  a  tenure-track position in the Department of Biology,
with a joint appointment in the Department of Plant Sciences.

Requirements include  a  Ph.D.,  preferably  with  teaching  ex-
perience.  The  successful  applicant  will  be  responsible for
teaching courses such as introductory  plant  taxonomy  and  for
curatorship of the W.P. Fraser Herbarium.

In  accordance  with Canadian immigration requirements, priority
will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.  The
University  of  Saskatchewan  is  committed to the principles of
Employment Equity and welcomes applications from  all  qualified
candidates.

Send  curriculum vitae and the names, addresses and telephone or
fax numbers of at least three referees to:

   Chair, Selection Committee
   Department of Biology
   University of Saskatchewan
   112 Science Place
   Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E2
   Canada
   Telephone: 306-966-4400
   Fax: 306-966-4461

The closing date for applications is February 15, 1999.

This position as advertised is subject to budgetary approval.

MOSS RHYTIDIADELPHUS TRIQUETRUS INTRODUCED TO NEW ZEALAND
From: Melanie Newfield <[email-masked]>

Recently a species of moss called Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus was
reported for the first time in New Zealand. It was found in  the
township  of  St Arnaud, next to the Nelson Lakes National Park,
which is about 1 hours drive south of Nelson,  at  the  northern
end of  the  Southern  Alps.  I am informed by Dr. Allan Fife of
Landcare Research  that  Rhytidiadelphus  triquetrus  occurs  in
boreal  forests  in  the  northern  hemisphere  where  it  is "a
widespread and ecologically important component  of  the  ground
cover."

Dr. Fife has expressed the concern that this species is a poten-
tially serious invader of  undisturbed  native  forest  such  as
beech  and  manuka scrub. Although New Zealand material is prob-
ably exclusively male (it is a dioecious moss), he  has  pointed
out that the related R. squarrosus, also exclusively male in New
Zealand,  has spread throughout Westland, Southland and parts of
Otago in the last 25 years. However, unlike R. triquetrus,  this
species  has  not  shown  the  ability  to  invade intact native
forest.

In the past the invasive potential of non-vascular plant species
has largely been overlooked.  However  there  is  an  increasing
acknowledgement of the threat posed by marine algae, and concern
has  been  raised  over  invasive  mosses  overseas. For several
reasons  I am particularly  concerned about mosses when compared 
to many other weeds:

 1. The identification of mosses is a very specialised area, and
    invasions are likely to go  undetected  unless  by  a  lucky
    chance  they happen to occur where an experienced bryologist
    happens to be (as in the present case).
 2. Mosses and similar plants tend to have very  effective  dis-
    persal, both vegetative and sexual.
 3. Very little is known about moss control, (except in lawns).

I  plan to look at this further to find out how far the moss has
spread and whether it will be controllable, or need to  be  con-
trolled.  My feeling on this is that if it is eradicable then it
should be eradicated, as this has the appearance  of  a  problem
that could become intractable very rapidly.

I  would  be interested to know if anybody has any experience at
all with invasive mosses, or has heard anything about management
of exotic moss species. I would be interested to know  any  con-
trol  techniques which have been used for mosses (whether or not
they have worked).

Any ideas or comments would be much appreciated.

   Melanie Newfield
   Department of Conservation
   Nelson/Marlborough Conservancy

BOREAL FOREST CLASSIFICATION BY PEINADO ET AL. (1998) - REVIEW
From: Toby Spribille <Spribille_Toby/[email-masked]>

This work is the first comprehensive, syntaxonomic  overview  of
North  American  boreal forest vegetation, a massive undertaking
by any standard. The authors compiled a total of  2084  releves,
of  which they themselves gathered 204, assembling the remainder
from published raw data from Alaska to Labrador. All of the  new
releves  are presented in releve tables, and the entire data set
is summarized in synoptic tables, to arrive at 37  associations,
10  alliances  and  4  orders,  an example of the utility of the
Braun-Blanquet approach in creating overviews  of  large  areas.
The  authors take this one step further by comparing their North
American releves  with  3273  releves  obtained  from  European,
Japanese  and  Korean literature, to form the most comprehensive
floristic overview of circumpolar boreal forest vegetation  ever
undertaken.  They  conclude  that the circumpolar boreal forests
have so much in common, they must  be  summarized  in  the  same
class  as  described  for  the  coniferous  forests of the Alps,
Vaccinio-Piceetea Br.-Bl. 1939.

Central to the survey is  the  construction  of  a  hierarchical
comparison  of forest vegetation based on floristics. Those with
only distant  familiarity  with  Braun-Blanquet  methods,  might
recall  that  construction  of  the  hierarchies is a process of
systematic and iterative comparison of sample plots (releves) to
identify floristic patterns -- not unlike the  methods  used  to
distill  plant  species  from morphological patterns. The second
step is the construction of a hierarchy based on similarities of
the communities to each other. An association is delimited  from
a series of closely similar vegetation samples; similar associa-
tions  are grouped into alliances, and likewise they into orders
and classes. Since vegetation ecologists very early began evolv-
ing widely diverging views of what  constitutes  an  association
and  how  hierarchies  are  constructed,  a group of far-sighted
vegetation scientists from  over  a  dozen  countries  formed  a
commission to draft a rigid set of classificatory rules to avoid
chaos  in  the  system,  most recently revised by Barkman et al.
(1986).

Peinado and his colleagues are to be commended for  adhering  to
this  code  throughout  their  work. They have taken many of the
long, nomenclaturally invalid association names such  as  Ptilio
(crista-castrensis)   -   Gymnocarpio  (dryopteridis)  -  Abieto
(lasiocarpae) - Piceetum glaucae and shortened them  in  accord-
ance  with  the  code to more manageable binomials. They combine
closely related communities into  consolidated  association  and
propose  synonymies.  They  designate type releves for their as-
sociations and type associations for their alliances and orders,
so that if they should ever need to be split, the splitter  will
know  which  half of the association maintains the original name
-- an important small  step  almost  always  overlooked  in  our
regional vegetation studies.

In  their  descriptions  of  the  syntaxa  (vegetation  types of
various rank), Peinado and his colleagues do  not  leave  out  a
general  overview  of  the  causal environment, providing useful
tables of soils and climatic characteristics associated with  he
individual  associations.  Notwithstanding,  it is apparent that
the central objective of their work is the systematic comparison
of vegetation types -- syntaxonomy in the strict sense.

While there are certainly technicalities of the  classification,
such as the inclusion of peripheral Pacific Northwest syntaxa in
a  classification  meant  for  the boreal forest, which could be
criticized, I think it is important to draw  attention  to  this
work  as  a  milestone  in  the development of phytosociology in
North America. My sharpest criticism of  the  authors  is  their
near-failure  to  engage the many vegetation ecologists who work
in  the  region  of  their  study,   who   are   the   potential
beneficiaries  of their classification, the users on the ground,
the link between  the  abstract  and  the  concrete.  Vegetation
classification  is not an end in itself, but a tool to interpret
the landscape, to  make  responsible  conservation  and  natural
resource  management  decisions.  Peinado and his colleagues are
encouraged to bridge this gap,  both  through  presenting  their
classification in the light of forest management considerations,
and  explaining  how  their  classification  differs  from those
available to vegetation ecologists in the region today. If  they
do not, their survey of boreal forest vegetation, as well as the
promised  forthcoming  surveys of western North American vegeta-
tion, may join the ranks of the numerous other phytosociological
classifications which failed to make  themselves  useful,  which
sit today shelved in the company of other esoteric dissertations
on the dusty bookshelves of our university libraries.

References:

Barkman,   J.J.,  J.  Moravec  &  S.  Rauschert  1986.  Code  of
   phytosociological nomenclature. 2nd  edition.  Vegetatio  67:
   145-195.
Peinado,  M.,  J.L.  Aguirre,  &  M. de la Cruz. 1998.  A phyto-
   sociological  survey of the boreal forest (Vaccinio-Piceetea)
   in North America. Plant Ecology 137: 151-202.

NORTH AMERICAN BOREAL CONIFEROUS FOREST - SYNOPSIS
From: Adolf Ceska <[email-masked]>

This  is  a  synopsis of the classification of boreal coniferous
forests  published  by  Peinado  et  al.  (1998)  -   see   Toby
Spribille's  review above. Peinado et al. recognized the follow-
ing orders (ending -etalia), alliances (-ion), and  associations
(-etum)  in  boreal  North  America. These forests belong to the
class (-etea)  Vaccinio-Piceetea described from Europe by Braun-
Blanquet et al.

Arctostaphylo rubrae-Piceetalia glaucae Peinado et al.
   Shepherdio canadensis-Piceion glaucae Peinado et al.
      Hypno procerrimi-Piceetum glaucae Hoefs et al.
      Pulsatillo patentis-Pinetum latifoliae Peinado et al.
      Betulo kenaicae-Piceetum glaucae Peinado et al.
      Piceo glaucae-Betuletum neoalaskanae Peinado et al.
      Roso sayi-Populetum tremuloidis Peinado et al.
      Betulo nanae-Piceetum glaucae Peinado et al.
      Rhododendro lapponici-Piceetum glaucae Peinado et al.
      Loiseleurio procumbentis-Betuletum neoalaskanae Peinado et
         al.
   Ledo decumbentis-Piceion marianae Peinado et al.
      Piceetum glauco-marianae Peinado et al.
      Larici laricinae-Piceetum marianae Peinado et al.
      Rubo chamaemori-Piceetum marianae Peinado et al.
      Boschniakio rossicae-Alnetum crispae Peinado et al.

Alnetalia tenuifoliae Wali & Kraj.
   Alnion tenuifoliae Wali & Kraj.
      Salici arbusculoidis-Alnetum tenuifoliae Peinado et al.
      Urtico gracilis-Alnetum tenuifoliae Wali & Kraj.

Gaultherio procumbentis-Piceetalia glaucae (Br.-Bl. et al.)
         Peinado et al.
   Gaultherio procumbentis-Piceion glaucae Peinado et al.
      Abietetum balsameae Damman
      Kalmio polifoliae-Abietetum balsameae Peinado et al.
      Alno crispae-Piceetum glaucae Peinado et al.
   Viburno cassinoidis-Piceion marianae Peinado et al.
      Kalmio angustifoliaea-Piceetum marianae Damman
      Kalmio polifoliae-Piceetum marianae Peinado et al.
      Sphagno-Piceetum marianae Grandtner
   Alnion rugosae Damman
      Alno rugosae-Piceetum marianae Damman
      Alnetum rugosae Damman
      Kalmio polifoliae-Alnetum rugosae Peinado et al.
      Vaccinio angustifoliae-Thujetum occidentalis Peinado
         et al.
   Pinion divaricatae Lavoie
      Camptonio peregrinae-Pinetum divaricatae Lavoie
      Ledo groenlandici-Pinetum divaricatae Lavoie
      Carici pensylvanicae-Pinetum divaricatae Lavoie
      Gaylussacio baccatae-Pinetum divaricataea Lavoie
   Asteri acuminati-Piceion rubentis Peinado et al.
      Piceo rubentis-Abietetum balsameae Jurdant
      Thujo occidentalis-Abietetum balsameae Jurdant ex Blouin &
         Grandtner

Piceetalia glauco-marianae Wali & Krajina
   Gymnocarpio dryopteridis-Abietion lasiocarpae Wali & Krajina
         emend. Peinado et al.
      Gymnocarpio dryopteridis-Abietetum lasiocarpae Wali &
         Krajina emend. Peinado et al.
      Arctostaphylo uva-ursi-Pinetum latifoliae Wali & Krajina
      Vaccinio membranacei-Piceetum glaucae x engelmannii Wali &
         Krajina
      Abieti bifoliae-Piceetum engelmannii Peinado et al.
      Vaccinio vitis-idaeae-Abietetum balsameae x bifoliae
         Peinado et al.
      Trientalido latifoliae-Piceetum glaucae Peinado et al.
   Piceion marianae Wali & Krajina
      Corno canadensis-Piceetum marianae Wali & Krajina emend.
         Peinado et al.

References:

Blouin,  J.L.  &  M.M. Grandtner. 1971. Etude ecologique et car-
   tographie de la vegetation du comte de Riviere-du-Loup.  Ser.
   Rech.: Dir. Gen. Planif. Min. ter. For. Quebec. 370 p.
Braun-Blanquet,  J.,  J. Sissingh, & J. Vlieger. 1939. Prodromus
   der Pflanzengesellschaften. 6. Klasse der  Vaccinio-Piceetea.
   Comm. SIGMA, Montpellier.
Damman,  A.W.H.  1964. Some forest types of central Newfoundland
   and their relation  to  environmental  factors.  Forest  Sci.
   Monograph 8: 1-62.
Grandtner,  M.M.  1960. La foret de Beasusejour, comte de Levis,
   Quebec. Contr. Fonds Rech. for. Univ. Laval No. 7: 1-62.
Hoefs, M.,  I. McTaggart-Cowan,  &  V.J. Krajina.  1976.  Phyto-
   sociological analysis and synthesis of Sheep Mountain, south-
   west Yukon Territory, Canada.  Syesis 8 (Suppl. 1): 125-228.
Jurdant,  M. 1969. Ecological classification of forest lands, an
   integrated vegetation-soil-landform approach.  Ph.D.  Thesis,
   Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY. 414 p.
Lavoie, V. 1968. La phytosociologie et  l'amenagement des bleue-
   tieres. Naturaliste can. 95: 397-412.
Peinado,  M.,  J.L.  Aguirre,  &  M. de la Cruz. 1998.  A phyto-
   sociological  survey of the boreal forest (Vaccinio-Piceetea)
   in North America. Plant Ecology 137: 151-202.
Wali,   M.K.   &   V.J.  Krajina.  1973.  Vegetation-environment
   relationships of some sub-boreal spruce  zone  ecosystems  in
   British Columbia. Vegetatio 26: 237-281.
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