TY - JOUR N2 - Aeolian activity is common on ice free areas in regions with permafrost occurrence. Sparse high-Arctic tundra vegetation, modifying surface air flow and sediments transport, influences the generation of individual landforms and their assemblages. Observations were carried in central Spitsbergen (Svalbard), characterized by quasi-continental polar climate conditions with dry summers and common existence of winds velocities above loamy-sandy sediments transportation threshold. Dryas aeolian landforms created from aeolian material trapped by Dryas octopetala dwarf shrub were diagnosed. Main morphogenetic plants are accompanied by Saxifraga oppositifolia and Bistorta vivipara, rounded out with biological soil crust. Small size of semi-circular and semi-elliptic forms (0.25–0.85 m2) is related to low type of D. octopetala slowly growing on raised marine terraces. Aeolian sediments are characterised by low level of organic matter content. They exhibit diversified mineralogical composition resulting from variable petrography of source glacial and fluvioglacial covers. Eightpetal mountain avens are a dendroflora species composing phytocoenoses of plant communities related to the end stages of biocoenotic succession. Presented data indicate the reference environmental state for any research on plant cover response in the environment of aeolian activity during climate change. L1 - http://czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/115833/PDF/2020-01-PPR-03-Borysiak-Pleskot-Rachlewicz.pdf L2 - http://czasopisma.pan.pl/Content/115833 PY - 2020 IS - No 1 EP - 68 DO - 10.24425/ppr.2020.132569 KW - Arctic KW - Svalbard KW - biogeomorphology KW - Dryas octopetala KW - tundra KW - vegetation pattern A1 - Borysiak, Janina A1 - Pleskot, Krzysztof A1 - Rachlewicz, Grzegorz PB - Polish Academy of Sciences PB - Committee on Polar Research VL - vol. 41 DA - 2020.03.30 T1 - Dryas aeolian landforms in Arctic deflationary tundra, central Spitsbergen SP - 41 UR - http://czasopisma.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/115833 T2 - Polish Polar Research ER -