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The Arctic ecozone is undergoing a rapid transformation in response to climate change. Establishing a baseline of current Arctic biodiversity is necessary to be able to track changes in species diversity and distribution over time. Here, we report a vascular plant floristic study of Katannilik Territorial Park, Kimmirut and vicinity within Circumpolar Arctic Bioclimate Subzone D on southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada. We compiled a dataset of 1596 collections gathered in the study area throughout the last century, including 838 we made in 2012. The vascular flora comprises 35 families, 98 genera, 211 species, two nothospecies and seven infraspecific taxa. We newly recorded 51 taxa in 22 families in the study area: Erigeron eriocephalus, Taraxacum holmenianum (Asteraceae), Draba arctica, D. fladnizensis, D. lactea (Brassicaceae), Campanula rotundifolia (Campanulaceae), Arenaria longipedunculata, Honckenya peploides subsp. diffusa, Sabulina rossii, Silene uralensis subsp. uralensis, Viscaria alpina (Caryophyllaceae), Carex brunnescens subsp. brunnescens, C. krausei, C. microglochin, C. subspathacea, C. williamsii, Eriophorum scheuchzeri subsp. arcticum (Cyperaceae), Andromeda polifolia, Orthilia secunda subsp. obtusata (Ericaceae), Oxytropis podocarpa (Fabaceae), Luzula groenlandica (Juncaceae), Triglochin palustris (Juncaginaceae), Utricularia ochroleuca (Lentibulariaceae), Huperzia continentalis (Lycopodiaceae), Montia fontana (Montiaceae), Corallorhiza trifida, Platanthera obtusata subsp. obtusata (Orchidaceae), Hippuris lanceolata, H. vulgaris, Plantago maritima (Plantaginaceae), Calamagrostis neglecta subsp. groenlandica, C. purpurascens, Festuca prolifera var. lasiolepis, F. rubra subsp. rubra, F. rubra subsp. arctica, Hordeum jubatum subsp. jubatum, Leymus mollis subsp. mollis, L. mollis subsp. villosissimus, Puccinellia vaginata (Poaceae), Primula egaliksensis (Primulaceae), Cryptogramma stelleri (Pteridaceae), Coptidium × spitsbergense (Ranunculaceae), Potentilla crantzii, P. hyparctica subsp. hyparctica, Rubus chamaemorus, Sibbaldia procumbens (Rosaceae), Salix fuscescens (Salicaceae), Micranthes foliolosa, M. nivalis, M. tenuis (Saxifragaceae) and Woodsia alpina (Woodsiaceae). We recorded 196 taxa in Katannilik Territorial Park (191 species, three infraspecific taxa and two nothospecies); 145 of these taxa are first records for the park. We recorded 170 taxa in Kimmirut and vicinity (166 species, three infraspecific taxa and one nothospecies) in Kimmirut and vicinity; 15 of these taxa are first records for Kimmirut and vicinity. All study area species are native, except two grasses that grew in Kimmirut: F. rubra subsp. rubra, which may have been seeded and Hordeum jubatum subsp. jubatum, of unknown origin. We summarize the distribution on Baffin Island for each taxon recorded in the study area, including several unpublished southern Baffin Island records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victoria Island in Canada's western Arctic is the eighth largest island in the world and the second largest in Canada. Here, we report the results of a floristic study of vascular plant diversity of Victoria Island. The study is based on a specimen-based dataset comprising 7031 unique collections from the island, including some 2870 new collections gathered between 2008 and 2019 by the authors and nearly 1000 specimens variously gathered by N. Polunin (in 1947), M. Oldenburg (1940s-1950s) and S. Edlund (1980s) that, until recently, were part of the unprocessed backlog of the National Herbarium of Canada and unavailable to researchers. Results are presented in an annotated checklist, including keys and distribution maps for all taxa, citation of specimens, comments on taxonomy, distribution and the history of documentation of taxa across the island, and photographs for a subset of taxa. The vascular plant flora of Victoria Island comprises 38 families, 108 genera, 272 species, and 17 additional taxa. Of the 289 taxa known on the island, 237 are recorded from the Northwest Territories portion of the island and 277 from the Nunavut part. Thirty-nine taxa are known on the island from a single collection, seven from two collections and three from three collections. Twenty-one taxa in eight families are newly recorded for the flora of Victoria Island: Artemisia tilesii, Senecio lugens, Taraxacum scopulorum (Asteraceae); Crucihimalaya bursifolia, Draba fladnizensis, D. juvenilis, D. pilosa, D. simmonsii (Brassicaceae); Carex bigelowii subsp. bigelowii, Eriophorum russeolum subsp. albidum (Cyperaceae); Anthoxanthum monticola subsp. monticola, Bromus pumpellianus, Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. cespitosa, D. sukatschewii, Festuca rubra subsp. rubra, Lolium perenne, Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis (Poaceae); Stuckenia filiformis (Potamogetonaceae); Potentilla ×prostrata (Rosaceae); Galium aparine (Rubiaceae); and Salix ovalifolia var. ovalifolia (Salicaceae). Eight of these are new to the flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Senecio lugens, Draba juvenilis, D. pilosa, Anthoxanthum monticola subsp. monticola, Bromus pumpellianus, Deschampsia cespitosa subsp. cespitosa, Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis and Salix ovalifolia var. ovalifolia. One of these, Galium aparine, is newly recorded for the flora of Nunavut. Four first records for Victoria Island are introduced plants discovered in Cambridge Bay in 2017: three grasses (Festuca rubra subsp. rubra, Lolium perenne, and Poa pratensis subsp. pratensis) and Galium aparine. One taxon, Juncus arcticus subsp. arcticus, is newly recorded from the Northwest Territories. Of the general areas on Victoria Island that have been botanically explored the most, the greatest diversity of vascular plants is recorded in Ulukhaktok (194 taxa) and the next most diverse area is Cambridge Bay (183 taxa). The floristic data presented here represent a new baseline on which continued exploration of the vascular flora of Victoria Island - particularly the numerous areas of the island that remain unexplored or poorly explored botanically - will build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on barcoding sedges ( Carex) suggested that basic searches within a global barcoding database would probably not resolve more than 60% of the world’s some 2000 species. In this study, we take an alternative approach and explore the performance of plant DNA barcoding in the Carex lineage from an explicitly regional perspective. We characterize the utility of a subset of the proposed protein-coding and noncoding plastid barcoding regions ( matK, rpoB, rpoC1, rbcL, atpF-atpH, psbK-psbI) for distinguishing species of Carex and Kobresia in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, a clearly defined eco-geographical region representing 1% of the Earth’s landmass. Our results show that matK resolves the greatest number of species of any single-locus (95%), and when combined in a two-locus barcode, it provides 100% species resolution in all but one combination ( matK + atpFH) during unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean averages (UPGMA) analyses. Noncoding regions were equally or more variable than matK, but as single markers they resolve substantially fewer taxa than matK alone. When difficulties with sequencing and alignment due to microstructural variation in noncoding regions are also considered, our results support other studies in suggesting that protein-coding regions are more practical as barcoding markers. Plastid DNA barcodes are an effective identification tool for species of Carex and Kobresia in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, a region where the number of co-existing closely related species is limited. We suggest that if a regional approach to plant DNA barcoding was applied on a global scale, it could provide a solution to the generally poor species resolution seen in previous barcoding studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]