Fróðskaparrit - 31.12.2000, Qupperneq 48

52
A REVIEW OF PLANT COMMUNITIES OF THE FAROEISLANDS
lyngbyii association. The Carex lyngbyii
association is dominated by Eleocaris
palustris, Carex lyngbyii and Carex salina.
The Plantago maritima association is
closely allied to salt marshes, with charac-
ter species like Plantago maritima, P.
coronopus, P. lanceolata, Silene acaulis,
Festuca rubra, Agrostis stolonifera, and
others. This association was also described
by Tannhauser (1995) who found the fol-
lowing five associations from the coastal
marshes: the Puccinellietum association,
the Puccinellietum maritimae association,
the Potentillietum egedi association, the
Festucetum littoralis association, and the
Plantaginetum maritimae association.
Outlook
The vegetation in the Faroe Islands has
been poorly investigated to date. Only by
using the sparse literature available, which
is summarised here, is it possible to present
an overview of the plant communities in the
Faroe Islands. A three-year project entitled
Vegetation Zones in Relation to Climatic
Parameters in Some Faroese Mountains
and Ecological Behaviour of Selected
Plant Species is in progress. The project,
which is a co-operative effort between the
Faroese Museum of Natural History,
Aarhus University, and Lund University,
will hopefully fill in some of the gaps. The
aim of the project is to study the floristic
and vegetation changes along altitudinal
gradients in the Faroe Islands. The vegeta-
tion zones in the Faroe Islands will be in-
vestigated according to their aspect with
the aim of determining and using the zones
as parameters for measuring temporal veg-
etation changes as a consequence of cli-
mate change.
The project will also give a detailed de-
scription of the plant communities, based
on quantitative measures in a selected study
area. The relationships of the plant com-
munities to environmental variation and
climatic parameters will be investigated.
Ackno wledgements:
Special thanks to Martin T. Sykes and Pehr H. Enckell,
Lund University; Jonas E. Lawesson, Arhus University;
Kjeld Hansen, Copenhagen, Magnus Gaard, Faroese
Museum of Natural History and Sigga Rasmussen,
Faroe Islands. This paper is a part of the project: Vege-
tation Zones in Relation to Climatic Parameters in Some
Faroese Mountains and Ecological Behaviour ofSelect-
ed Plcmt Species, which is partly funded by the Danish
Research Councils and the Faroese Museum of Natural
History.
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