Message - 7th IAL Symposium

Lichen: from genome to ecosystem in a changing world
1A-0
(1A – O12) Submission ID: IAL0009-00007
THE NECESSITY FOR ESTABLISHING A DATABASE AND AN INDEX OF THE
DETERIORATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE STONEWORK
BY LICHENS AS AN AID TO CONSERVATION WORK
Favero - Longo S. E. 1 , Gazzano C. 1 , Caneva G. 2 , Cannon P. 3 , Fiorentino J. 4 , Gómez Bolea A. 5 , Grillo M. 6 ,
Marques J. 7 , Matteucci E. 1 , Modenesi P. 8 , Nimis P. 9 , Prieto-Lamas B. 10 , Ravera S. 11 , Roccardi A. 12 ,
Salvadori O. 13 , Seaward M. R. 14 , Stocker-Wörgötter E. 15 , Piervittori R. 1
1 Dip. Biologia Vegetale, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy
2 Dip. Biologia Ambientale, Università Roma Tre, Roma, Italy
3 Jedrell Laboratory, CABI Europe-UK & Royal Botanic Garden Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
4 Dept. Biology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
5 Dept. Biologia Vegetal, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
6 Dip. Botanica, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
7 Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
8 DIP.TE.RIS., Università di Genova, Genova, Italy
9 Dip. Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
10 Dept. Edafologia y Química Agrícola, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago De Compostela, Spain
11 Dip. STAT, Università del Molise, Pesche (IS), Italy
12 ICR, Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro, Roma, Italy
13 Laboratorio Scientifico, Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Veneziano, Venezia, Italy
14 Dept. Environmental Science, University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom
15 Fachbereich Organismische Biologie, Universität Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Conservators of cultural heritage currently lack practical tools to diagnose and quantify the impact of
different (micro-)organisms on stonework, a key element in the planning and management of conservation programmes.
The severity of deteriorative activity of many lichen species is well known, and thus public authorities
generally opt for the physical and/or chemical removal of “disfiguring” lichens from stonework. However, in some
cases these organisms may protect the substratum beneath and also have a positive aesthetic significance
and biodiversity value, thus being worthy of conservation. The recently proposed Index of Lichen Potential Biodeteriogenic
Activity (ILPBA) is a numeric descriptor to measure the impact of different lichen species on the
substratum, both externally and internally (Gazzano et al., 2009, Int. Biodet. Biodegr. 63, 836-843). A research
network of lichenologists will establish a European database in order to quantify the relative damaging impacts
of species and calibrate the parameter scales adopted in the index calculation so that the ILPBA and its interpretation
can be effectively and appropriately disseminated to public authorities, managers and professionals
engaged in conservation work. This group seeks financial support to (a) organize meetings/training schools for
sharing scientific knowledge and technical skills in order to provide comparable datasets for the index validation
process, (b) implement case-studies to monitor the impact of particular lichens on different substrata under a
variety of climatic conditions, and (c) establish a web-site database complemented by a realistic biodeterioration
index/scale suitable for use by non-scientists.
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