Cover of blue-green algae, bryophytes, and vascular plants, and number of bryophyte species increased along a topographic gradient from the crest of a beach ridge down into a tundra meadow on Bathurst Island, Arctic Canada; lichen cover was greatest in the middle of the slope. Soil moisture, organic content, and nutrient concentrations increased along the same gradient, and pH became slightly less alkaline. Crest and slope plant associations varied between nearby sites and differed considerably from the more constant tundra meadow association, which resembled the Drepanocladus brevifolius community recognized elsewhere in the High Arctic. Among edaphic characteristics, soil moisture was most closely correlated with vegetation.