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• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Kamchatka
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.624.8196; http://www.biosoil.ru/files/00002438.pdf

Volcanic activity has exerted an extraordinary effect on the formation of flora on the entire Kamchatka Pen-insula (Komarov, 1951). Today, it largely determines the pattern of flora and vegetation in some regions of Kamchatka, mainly in its eastern part. Of the 29 active volcanoes recorded on the peninsula, 4 manifested explosive activity during the past five years (Kir’yanov et al., 2003). The tops of seven volcanoes rise above 3000 m a.s.l. and are the present-day centers of glacia-tion. Trends in flora formation under the combined impact of volcanic and glacial activity have been described mainly as a secondary issue in large-scale floristic studies, and only a few publications have been devoted to the corresponding floristic complexes (Bylinkina, 1954). However, even these publications usually deal with vascular plants, while moss and lichen communities have escaped the attention of spe-cialists in this field. The purpose of this study was to describe the floris-tic groups of liverworts developing under the impact of a periodic fallout of volcanic ash and glacial activity in the vicinity of the Bil’chenok glacier on the Ushkovskii volcano (eastern Kamchatka). MATERIAL AND METHODS The Klyuchevskaya group of volcanoes extends over a large area (