Three-year vegetation change in the Arctic environment as observed in a permanent plot in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard

摘要

A permanent plot was established in 1997 to monitor vegetation development in a recently abandoned coal mine in Ny-_lesund, Svalbard. A 1 mx1 m quadrat was set up and further divided into one hundred small 10 cmx10 cm cells. All the vascular plants occurring in the plot were recorded for each of the 100 cells. In 1999, the plot was revisited and examined for occurrences of vascular plants. Further, in 2002, the plot was re-surveyed and all the vascular plants were measured for their coverage. Data were compared and coverage change over the past three years was detected. Vascular plants significantly increased, indicating that the vegetation succession is currently in progress.