Boychuk, M.A. 2024. Mosses of Kostomuksha city (Republic of Karelia, Russia)

Arctoa (2025) 34: 61–68

doi: 10.15298/arctoa.34.06

Kostomuksha was founded in 1983; it is the youngest city in the Republic of Karelia. The paper summarizes the results of a long-term inventory of mosses. An annotated list contains 150 species occurring in the city area, including four arbitrary zones: residential, forest, mire and water. Mosses in the disturbed habitats of the industrial zone are also discussed. The moss flora of Kostomuksha is compared with that of Kostomuksha Strict Nature Reserve, showing minor changes in moss species diversity due to anthropogenic transformations. Thus, moss populations in the north-taiga subzone of European Russia are well preserved in Kostomuksha.