Vascular Plants of Medvezhiy Island in Porya Gyba Bay of the White Sea

• Published in: Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Main Author: Mikhail Kozhin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2016
• Subjects: insular floras; vascular plants; history of human impact; murmansk region; Science; Q; White Sea; Murmansk; Crowberry
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17076/bg41; https://doaj.org/article/58fbf4ab352b4202bf56b34d34dc48b5

Medvezhiy Island is located in the central part of Porya Guba Bay of the White Sea and is one of the largest islands of the bay. The island’s flora includes 230 native and 10 alien plant species. The plant cover is mosaic and diverse. There are crowberry heaths, coniferous forests, birch woodland, mires, rupicolous vegetation and small pieces of coastal and anthropogenic grasslands on the island. Fourteen species of vascular plants are under statutory protection and included in the latest edition of the Red Data Book of the Murmansk Region (2014). The island had been actively used in the past; in the 18th–19th centuries there was active exploration and commercial development of silver deposits, which stopped in the end of the 19th century.