Distribution patterns in the native vascular flora of Iceland.

• Published in: PLoS ONE
• Main Authors: Pawel Wasowicz, Andrzej Pasierbiński, Ewa Maria Przedpelska-Wasowicz, Hörður Kristinsson
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
• Subjects: Medicine; R; Science; Q; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102916; https://doaj.org/article/f547b010315b46dcb59d11789ea95a54

The aim of our study was to reveal biogeographical patterns in the native vascular flora of Iceland and to define ecological factors responsible for these patterns. We analysed dataset of more than 500,000 records containing information on the occurrence of vascular plants. Analysis of ecological factors included climatic (derived from WORLDCLIM data), topographic (calculated from digital elevation model) and geological (bedrock characteristics) variables. Spherical k-means clustering and principal component analysis were used to detect biogeographical patterns and to study the factors responsible for them. We defined 10 biotic elements exhibiting different biogeographical patterns. We showed that climatic (temperature-related) and topographic variables were the most important factors contributing to the spatial patterns within the Icelandic vascular flora and that these patterns are almost completely independent of edaphic factors (bedrock type). Our study is the first one to analyse the biogeographical differentiation of the native vascular flora of Iceland.