Lichen as Bioindicator for Monitoring Environmental Status in Western Himalaya, India

Abstract

The use of bioindicator communities (lichen) to assess the environmental status of an area is a well-proved strategy to monitor any habitat without any logistic and instrumental facilities. In the present study, 13 bioindicator communities of lichen have been used to assess the environmental status of holy pilgrimage (Badrinath), western Himalaya, India. Three sites (i.e. Badrinath, Mana & pilgrimage route from Bhimpul to Vasudhara) have been comparatively assessed. The results of the study reveals that Badrinath site is less polluted and experiences low degree of anthropogenic disturbances compared to Mana, and pilgrimage route (Bhimpul to Vasudhara). Human settlements, construction of civil works, vehicular emission, and trampling and trekking by tourists are the major threats on these habitats, which ultimately decrease the quality of vegetation and adjacent environment. Controlled vehicular use, promotion of modern way of cooking and managed trekking in these pilgrimage routes could be helpful to combat the decreasing vegetation and environmental quality therein.

New Distributional Records of Lichens for the State of Mizoram, Indo-Burma Region of India

“…Since many previous studies had shown that the lichens are the best indicator of pollution particularly Usnea sp. which is highly sensitive to sulfur dioxide [43][44][45]. Similarly, the occurrence of both foliose parmelioid lichens, Bulbothrix, Remototrachyna, neighboring genus Usnea, further indicated a pollution free environmental condition in the 1 st study area i.e., Reiek in comparison with to MZU campus.…”

Short Communication: The effects of SO2 and NO2 fumigation on the chlorophyll of Parmotrema perlatum from Mt. Lawu, Cemoro Sewu, Indonesia

“…Lichen is a symbiosis between algae and fungi (Gupta et al 2016), a group of non-vascular organisms called symbionts (Shukla et al 2014). As symbionts, lichens are composed of two parts: a photobiont (algae) and a mycobiont (fungi).…”

Líquenes Como Medio De Evaluación Ambiental – Aplicaciones Del Indice De Pureza Atmosferica (Ipa)

“…Los líquenes son organismos aparentemente insignificantes; sin embargo, juegan un rol importante en nuestro ambiente, tanto en la conformación del medio físico como del biológico (Gupta et al, 2016;Ellis et al, 2022). Los líquenes son importantes como colonizadores de suelos y rocas expuestas, jugando un papel significativo disgregándolas rocas física y químicamente, contribuyendo a la formación del suelo (Alquiza et al, 2015).…”