54 | Annual Activity Report 2012 1 PLANT COMMUNITIES FROM STINKER POINT, ELEPHANT ISLAND, ANTARCTICA Antonio Batista Pereira 1 , Jair Putzke 2 , Filipe de Carvalho Victoria 1 , Clarissa Kappel Pereira 1 , Cristiane Barbosa D’Oliveira 1 & Adriano Luis Shünemann 1 1 Universidade Federal do Pampa – UNIPAMPA. Av. Antonio Trilha, 1847, São Gabriel, RS, CEP 97300-000, Brazil 2 Universidade de Santa Cruz do Sul – UNISC. Av. Independência, 2293, Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, CEP 96815-900, Brazil *e-mail: anbatistape@gmail.com Abstract: is paper presents theresults of plant community studies in ice-free areas from Stinker Point, Elephant Island, Antarctica, carried out in the austral summer 2011/2012. e principalaim being to map and describe plant communities of the studied areas. e plant communities have been classified and described based primarily on the physiognomy and phytosociology, which was carried out using the quadrate method. GPS L1-L2 was used for georeferencing the plant communities identified. With the data obtained it was possible to identify and describe six plant communities: 1. Fruticose lichens and moss cushion communities; 2. Moss-turf communities (two-sociation: Chorisodontium-Sanionia sociation and Poltrychaceae-Sanionia sociation); 3. Moss- carpet communities; 4. Crustose lichens communities; 5. Phanerogamic Antarctic tundra communities, (with twos asociations: Colobanthus-mosses association and Mosses-Deschampsia association) and 6. Fellfield communities. Furthermore, we present a map with the exact location of the communities described. Keywords: Description, Mapping, Vegetation, Elephant Island, Antarctica Introdution Elephant Island is located 61 o 07’ S and 55 o 03’ W, it has 37 Km in the E-W direction and 16 Km in the N-S direction. e central area is totally ice-covered. e ice-free areas are coastal, but the access is difficult because there are steep cliffs and the wind and waves are oſten very strong. Stinker Point is the largest coastal ice-free area and is the richest in flora and floristic diversity of this island. is area is limited to the northwest near the beach by the Sultan Glacier and to the south by the Endurance Glacier the distance between the two glaciers is 4,500 m, and from the beach to glacier is 800 m in a straight line (Pereira & Putzke 1994). The main objective of this work is mapping and describing the plant communities from ice-free areas of the Stinker Point, Elephant Island, Antarctica. Materials and Methods e description and classification of the plant communities was based on Pereira et al. (2011), Pereira & Putzke (1994), Lewis-Smith & Gimngham (1976) and Redon (1985). e identification of bryophytes was done based on Putzke & Pereira (2001) and Ochyra (1998) and the lichens on Øvstedal & Lewis-Smith (2001) and Redon (1985). The plant communities and geoenvironments were mapped in the field using an Astech Promark II ® DGPS, obtaining a submetric precision aſter post-processing with the Astech Solutions ® soſtware. is data was overlaid and adjusted on a high resolution IKONOS satellite image, acquired in the summer of 2008. e characterization of plant communities followed the nomenclature adopted by Victoria et al. (2006). All communities and environments were digitally photographed constituting a rich record of images. Results Based on the vegetal cover of the dominant species, it was possible to identify six plant communities and four associations in Stinker Point ice-free areas ecosystem. e plant communities were named based in the most http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/apa.2014.093