On the cover Dry heaths dominated by white-flowering Dryas octopetala, an ecologically important arctic-alpine dwarf shrub, extend here and there in the west coast of Spitsbergen. This photo shows a shore of Adventfjorden bay in a region of the largest ice-free areas in the Svalbard archipelago – the most intensely studied in the high Arctic.

[Author: Michał Ronikier]