High Arctic vegetation after 70 years: a repeated analysis from Svalbard

We asked whether vegetation mapping repeated after 70 years revealed vegetation changes in the high Arctic. The study site is located at 78A degrees 38'N, 16A degrees 45'E, near Brucebyen at the Adolfbukta Bay (head of Billjefjorden) in central Spitsbergen (Svalbard), and encompasses an area of 2,042 x 521 m. The mapping carried out in 2008 did not reveal any changes in vegetation, since a previous study in 1936-1937, that could be attributed to climate change. We argue that our finding can be interpreted as evidence of a slow ecological response of constituent plants in such a harsh environment. Moreover, geographic isolation may limit establishment and expansion of new species. Some successional changes were only due to erosion-accumulation processes connected especially to stream activity.