Ecological, Social and Commercial Role of Lichens in India with ...

Acdemia Arena 2010, Supplement 0201
http://www.sciencepub.net
Community studies can be carried out at various spatial scales. Most of the investigations on
lichen diversity have been descriptive and have concentrated on regional and global scales
(Groombridge 1992; Heywood 1995; Gaston 1996; Galloway 1996). The current focus such studies
is shifting from these higher scales to locally manageable landscapes as land use decisions and
management policies are most often implemented at these latter scales (Ricklefs and Schluter 1993;
Nagendra and Gadgil 1999; Negi 1999). Moreover, floristic inventories particularly of lower plants
suffer from lack of uniform field methods. This has partly hindered progress on long term
monitoring of biological diversity and its conservation (Negi and Gadgil 1997; Negi 1999).
Formulating proper methodology for documenting floristic diversity with ecological correlates
should therefore be a prerequisite for inventorying, periodical monitoring and conservation of bio
resources.
Number of specie and any other higher ranks of taxonomic organization in a site (species
richness or alpha diversity) and their compositional change across different habitat types (species
turnover or beta diversity) within a landscape are important parameters of biodiversity that have
wide applications such as environmental monitoring and conservation evaluation (Magurran 1988;
Pressey et al 1994; Negi 1999).
Singh and Bujarbarua (2002) presented note on the lichen diversity of Assam; Singh et al.
(2004) provided a comprehensive account on the endemic lichens of India. Balaji and Hariharan
(2004) studied the lichen diversity and its distribution pattern in tropical dry evergreen forest of
Guindy National Park (GNP), Chennai. The quantitative ecological data shows the occurrence of
31 species of lichens of fewer than 26 genera of 19 families and 9 fungal orders. These quantitative
ecological data were recorded from 219 individuals of phorophytes in a total 264 samples, out of
which 235 samples were taken from trees, 27 from shrubs and 2 from lianas of ≥3 cm gbh.
Strongest correlation emerged between tree density and host tree diversity of lichen distribution.
Species like Arthopyrenia alboatra, Parmotrema saccatilobum, Strigula elegans, Tapellaria sp. and,
Verrucaria species were found to be narrowly distributed in the park and specific to a single host.
Satya et al. (2005) reported that Shorea robusta tree is a suitable phorophyte for the luxuriant
growth and development of crustose lichens. Out of the 64 lichen species recorded from Shorea
robusta trees in various forest sites of India, 42 species fall under the crustose lichens.
Air pollution and climate changes are threats to maintaining ecological health of protected
areas. Lichens provide a relevant, sensitive and measurable indicator of long term monitoring. The
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