HIGH ALTITUDE ANTARCTIC SOIL PROPAGULE BANK YIELDS AN EXOTIC MOSS AND POTENTIAL COLONIST

Accession number;06A0715095
Title;HIGH ALTITUDE ANTARCTIC SOIL PROPAGULE BANK YIELDS AN EXOTIC MOSS AND POTENTIAL COLONIST
Author; LEWIS SMITH RONALD I. (British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, Gbr) LEWIS SMITH RONALD I. (Centre For Antarctic Plant Ecology And Diversity, Cambridge, Gbr) OCHYRA RYSZARD (Inst. Botany, Polish Acad. Sci., Krakow, Pol)
Journal Title;J Hattori Bot Lab
Journal Code:Y0255A
ISSN:0073-0912
VOL.;NO.100;PAGE.325-331(2006)
Figure&Table&Reference;FIG.1, REF.28
Pub. Country;Japan
Language;English
Abstract;Soil samples from the summit of Coulman Island in northern Victoria Land, continental Antarctica (lat. 73.DEG.28'S, 169.DEG.45'E), were cultured and after nine weeks they have yielded sterile shoots of a funarialean moss. Its identity is discussed and, on the basis of the leaf shape, it is determined, with some reservation, as Entosthodon subnudus (Taylor) Fife, a species native to the Australia-New Zealand biogeographical province. This example provides further evidence of the existence of soil propagule banks, sometimes containing taxa not known in the flora of the Antarctic biome. Because of the severity of the polar climate and permanently frigid dry desert conditions, many such propagules may never succeed in growing in situ. The occurrence of E. subnudus represents the highest elevation (2930 m) at which a viable plant propagule has been recorded in Antarctica. (author abst.)