The lichens of the Majella National Park (Central Italy): an annotated checklist

Abstract

The botanical exploration of the Majella National Park has a long tradition dating back to the eighteenth century. However, the lichen biota of this area is still poorly investigated. To provide a baseline for future investigations, in this annotated checklist, we summarised all available information on the occurrence of lichens in the Majella National Park, retrieved from previous literature, herbarium material and original data produced by recent research. The checklist includes 342 infrageneric taxa. However, seven taxa are considered as dubious, thus setting the number of accepted taxa at 335, i.e. 45.8% of those currently known to occur in the Abruzzo Region. This checklist provides a baseline of the lichens known to occur in the Majella National Park, highlighting the potential of this area as a hotspot of lichen biodiversity, especially from a biogeographical point of view as indicated by the occurrence of several arctic-alpine species that form disjunct populations in the summit area of the massif.

Species–area relationship in lichens tested in protected areas across Italy

“…However, two outliers show a far lower richness than expected given their areas, probably for two different reasons. The Majella National Park (Gheza et al 2021) is probably underinvestigated, whereas the area of the Ticino Natural Parks lies within the western Po Valley, a territory that is largely a plain and severely impacted by human activities. Indeed most of its extent is covered by urbanized and agricultural lands, which has led to a depletion of its lichen biota (Nimis 1993).…”

“…2022) or refugia for fragmented species at the border of their distributional range (Gheza et al . 2021). To verify this, however, a comparison of SAR patterns with non-protected areas, that sometimes can be included in area-based conservation frameworks (Hoffmann 2022), should also be made, to examine whether the protection regime could influence SAR.…”

“…Larger areas are also more likely to include a higher number of so-called 'microrefugia', sites with locally favourable conditions that are placed outside the main range of a species or that are surrounded by unfavourable habitats, the preservation of which is considered one of the best strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on sensitive lichens (Ellis 2020;Greiser et al 2021;Porada et al 2023), even with recognized limitations (Di ). To date, there is contrasting evidence about the effectiveness of already established protected areas in lichen conservation (Martínez et al 2006;Rubio-Salcedo et al 2013), even though in some cases protected areas have been recognized as lichen diversity hotspots (Nascimbene et al 2022) or refugia for fragmented species at the border of their distributional range (Gheza et al 2021). To verify this, however, a comparison of SAR patterns with nonprotected areas, that sometimes can be included in area-based conservation frameworks (Hoffmann 2022), should also be made, to examine whether the protection regime could influence SAR.…”

Notulae to the Italian flora of Algae, bryophtes, fungi and lichens: 15

“…This is the first Italian collection but the species is likely widespread throughout the Italian Alps. Cladonia trassii is an arctic-alpine species with squamulose verticillate podetia with very narrow scyphi (Gheza and Nimis 2021). It was previously recorded in Lombardia only from the high elevation coniferous forests of Mount Confinale, in Valtellina (Anzi 1868, as "Cladonia stricta", cited by Rivellini and Valcuvia Passadore 1996).…”

Water-energy relationships shape the phylogenetic diversity of terricolous lichen communities in Mediterranean mountains: Implications for conservation in a climate change scenario

“…In this study, we analysed the relationship between climatic variables and phylogenetic diversity of terricolous lichen communities along an altitudinal gradient in the Maiella Massif (Central Apennines, Abruzzo, Italy), the southernmost Mediterranean mountain massif with an alpine and subalpine belt in Italy (Conti et al, 2019;Gheza et al, 2021). In this area, strong effects of climate change were already evident in the taxonomic and functional diversity for plant and cryptogam (thus including lichens) communities (Di Nuzzo et al, 2021;Stanisci et al, 2011).…”