Conservation strategies for lichens: insights from population biology

Fine spatial pattern of an epiphytic lichen species is affected by habitat conditions in two forest types in the Iberian Mediterranean region

“…Dispersed propagules land on sites within a few metres of the dispersal source and this is independent of habitat quality (Edman et al 2004;Werth et al 2006;Jonsson et al 2008). Instead, dispersal depends on local winds or animals Heinken et al 2007) and only those propagules that find adequate habitats will develop a new thallus (Scheidegger & Werth 2009). This is independent of the long distance dispersal ability of this species (see dispersal kernels from Werth et al (2006)).…”

“…A growing body of literature is devoted to assess the influence of the nearest tree distance on the dynamics of epiphytic populations (e.g., Gu et al 2001;Kalwij et al 2005;Snail et al 2005;Bolli et al 2008). It remains unknown how dispersal actually limits and regulates the distribution of epiphytes, and how it interacts with habitat structure and quality (Heegaard & Hangelbroek 1999;Scheidegger & Werth 2009). Gu et al (2001) indicated that the distance between a noncolonized tree and the nearest colonized neighbouring tree provides a measure of the likelihood of colonization.…”

“…Lichens can reproduce using sexual or asexual structures (Scheidegger & Werth 2009). Lobaria pulmonaria reproduces asexually uia relatively large vegetative soredia or isidioid soredia (both symbionts are dispersed together), and sexually by means of ascospores that disperse only the mycobionts, which are formed in a late stage of thallus development (Scheidegger 1995;Denison 2003).…”

“…Although long distance-dispersal cannot, however, be discarded (Scheidegger & Werth 2009). However, the majority of L. pulmonaria vegetative propagules were detected at a very short spatial scale, i.e., <40 m .…”

Cladonia lichens on extensive green roofs: evapotranspiration, substrate temperature, and albedo

“…Lichens are symbiotic organisms, an association between a fungus (the mycobiont) and one or more algal and/or cyanobacterial photobionts 8, 9 . Typically the mycobiont forms 95% of the lichen body.…”