Borovichev E.A. Botanical excursion on the Northern Soroya. Hammerfest, 2014.

boulders. Rocky banks o f springs and waterfalls, cracked stones and cliffs provide a variety of habitats accommodating a lot o f different plants on a small area. Climbing around the cliff which looked at the distance like a bare surface you discover a lot o f diverting plants and lichens. Primary colonization o f rock is started by specialists, mosses and lichens. Crustaceous (their thallome looks like a crust on the rock) and umbilicarious (their thallome looks like a small and sometimes dissected umbrella) lichens are the earliest pioneers, often spreading over all surfaces o f the rock. On later stages o f succession humus and mineral particles are collected in rock crevices or between boulders, where herbs, dwarf shrubs and even seedlings of trees begin to grow. This vegetation succession goes fast on wet and water-sprayed rocks along streams and waterfalls. In this habitats algae (more abundant are colonies o f blue-green Nostoc), liverworts and mosses are pioneers, followed by grasses and sedges, next by some willows and mountain birch. Succession on the rock progresses to interspersed fragments of closed grasslands, alpine tundra and even mountain birch forest, if succession course is not interrupted by plant tuft moving down with snow or by sloping processes. Bird cliffs and rocks represent specific habitats, which are constantly and strongly influenced by birds (manured, covered by debris, etc.). Colonies o f birds nesting on cliffs and feeding in the sea transport nitrogen from the sea to land during spring and summer. Bird cliffs and fragments of bird meadows form complex habitats on rock ledges and under the bird colony, which receive flushes o f nutrient especially during snowmelt and runoff. Common Scurvy Grass (Cochlearia officinalis ), Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), Sea Mayweed (Tripleurospermum maritimum) and Rush­ leaved Fescue (Festuca rubra) form here luxuriant cover. Some plants growing on rocks readily inhabit roadsides, ditch banks and edges and settlements clearings. Some o f them (i.e. Saxifrages, Butterwort, Moss Campion, Mouse- ear) are very suitable to cultivate in alpine gardens. The colony ofthe Great Black Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) on seashore rocks 69