A Note on Winter Seed Rain in the High Arctic

Vascular plant cover is low (⋍ 5 to 25%) in semidesert communities in the High Arctic. Snow was cored over two plant communities for winter seed rain. Seeds were found roughly in proportion to plant cover in the immediate area. In snow cores sampled over a moss-herb community, 63 diaspores m–2 were found versus 20 diaspores m–2 over a graminoid barrens community. No exotic diaspores were found, but seeds of species typical of communities 1 km distant were sampled. Winter seed rain is only a fraction of reported summer values from an alpine site.