Message - 7th IAL Symposium

Lichen: from genome to ecosystem in a changing world
1A-P
(1A-P14) Submission ID: IAL0275-00001
LICHEN FLORA OF THE ISLAND OF LASTOVO (CROATIA, EUROPE)
Maslać M. 1 , Partl A. 2 , Miličević T. 1 , Žilić I. 1 , Počanić P. 1 , Derežanin L. 1
1 Division of Biology, Biology Students Association BIUS, Faculty of Science, Zagreb, Croatia
2 State Institute for Nature Protection, State Institute for Nature Protection, Zagreb, Croatia
Lastovo Archipelago (Croatia, Europe) is one of the most remote groups of islands in the Adriatic Sea,
with around 30 km distance from the nearest mainland. Its isolated position together with the fact that it was
a military outpost during the wars of the last century, had an exceptional influence on the preservation of the
unique natural characteristics of the island. Due to the extreme beauty and large biodiversity of the islands and
the surrounding marine habitats, in 2006 it was proclaimed as a Croatian Nature Park. As a part of a biodiversity
project, in 2007, the Lichenology group from the Biology Students Association conducted research in the newly
established park. We found 40 species on the island Lastovo, the main island of the Lastovo Archipelago; out
of which, 33 species were found within the area of the Park. One of the determined lichen species Teloschistes
chrysophthalmus (L.) Th.Fr. is listed as Near Threatened (NT) category according to IUCN categorization in the
Red List of lichens of Croatia. Previous records of the lichen flora for Lastovo island date from 1938, and list a total
of 55 species. We can hypothesize that some of the species previously recorded, but not found in this survey,
could either be found in an inaccessible part of the island, became extinct due to the environmental changes, or
were misrecorded by the previous survey. In order to enable the comparison the lichen flora with the flora with
other Adriatic islands and to determine how the environmental changes influence the comparative species composition,
more fieldwork and research using precise methods for assessing lichen biodiversity are needed.
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