Message - 7th IAL Symposium

Lichen: from genome to ecosystem in a changing world
5I-P
(5I-P6) Submission ID: IAL0258-00001
SURVEYING LICHEN BIODIVERSITY ON ROYSTONEA REGIA IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT
Scharnagl K. 1
1 Environmental Studies / Biology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, United States
Lichen biodiversity is often used to assess air quality and ecosystem health within non-urban environments.
This project, however, looks at the diversity and abundance of foliose, fruticose, and crustose lichens on
a particular substrate, Roystonea regia, comparing a university campus versus a botanical garden in the middle
of a metropolis. The particular substrate was chosen for two main reasons; first, it is distributed throughout the
study area, being exposed to a variety of levels of impact, and second because it’s large smooth trunks provide
an ideal location for discovering and identifying discrete lichen species. Roystonea regia is found in Cuba, Florida,
the Bahamas and the Yucatan Peninsula, and specimens thereof are often imported from and transferred
between these various locations. It is thus likely that lichen species unique to these other subtropical areas have
made their way to south Florida on a royal palm tree. Trunks are surveyed from the base of the tree to 1.6m. It is
acknowledged that not surveying the higher portion of the trunk may have overlooked some lichen species only
occurring there. Lichens are primarily identified via morphology. Some collecting will be made, if identification
cannot be easily done with morphology, if the specimen seems to be new to the area [and if there is enough of
it that a small collection will not hurt its population], or if the particular lichen species is being found in a unique
circumstance requiring further investigation. Ideally molecular work will be performed on lichen species found,
however this component of the project will not be complete by January 2012. Lichen diversity is assessed using
coefficient of community and a set of other similarity indices. It is hypothesized that overall lichen diversity per
substrate will increase from areas with high impact [foot traffic and automobile traffic] and low moisture, to areas
with low impact and high moisture [nearby lake or pond].
(5I-P7) Submission ID: IAL0282-00001
LICHEN FLORA OF THE RIVER ZRMANJA (CROATIA, EUROPE)
Derežanin L. 1 , Miličević T. 1 , žilić I. 1 , Počanić P. 1
1 Biology Division, Faculty of Science, Zagreb, Croatia
River Zrmanja is a representative karst river in northern Dalmatia, characterized by a rich and unique
flora and fauna. Part of the area belongs to the Nature Park “South Velebit” and along its inflow Krupa with
numerous waterfalls, cascades and rapids forms habitat of particular importance for endemic species, such as
Degenia velebitica. Furthermore, river canyon with its sandbanks and sandy dunes is one of the greatest natural
resources of Croatia. As a part of a student project entitled “Biodiversity research of River Zrmanja 2010” maintained
by Biology Students Association, Lichenology group carried out the research in the wider area of the River
Zrmanja and conducted inventory of lichen flora. During our field research 76 species were found and could be
distributed in 18 families. Among these species there are 3 that are recorded on the Red List of lichens of Republic
of Croatia. These are Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf and Teloschistes
chrysophthalmus (L.) Th.Fr. Presence of these species some of which are extremely sensitive to air pollution
is conceivable evidence of ecological preservation of this region of Croatia. As the last lichenological research
of this area and the majority of the data gathered, contain imprecisely described locations, age over 50 years,
therefore lichenological studies are of great importance for this region. We are willing to provide more fieldwork
and research in order to gather this specific data for assaying lichen biodiversity, also to conduct comparison of
species of the similar habitats and to determine impact of the environmental changes to the lichen flora.
182