This paper describes the use of lichen chemistry to assess airborne tungsten and cobalt in Fallon, Nevada, where a cluster of childhood leukemia has been on going since 1997. Lichens and their rock substrates were collected from Rattlesnake Hill within Fallon as well as from four different rock outcrops located north, east, south, and west of Fallon and at least 20 km away from the town center....

Lichens and mosses often share the same environmental conditions where they compete for substrate and other essential factors. Lichens use secondary metabolites as allelochemicals to repel surrounding plants and potential rivals. In mosses, endoreduplication leads to the occurrence of various ploidy levels in the same individual and has been suggested as an adaptation to abiotic stresses. Here,...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Forest edges created by fragmentation strongly affect the abiotic and biotic environment. A rarely studied consequence is the resulting impact on non-vascular plants such as poikilohydric lichens, known to be highly sensitive to changes in the microenvironment. We evaluated the impact of forest edge and forest interior on the distribution of two groups of crustose lichens ch...

Seven lichens (Usnea antarctica and U. aurantiacoatra) and nine moss samples (Sanionia uncinata) collected in King George Island were analyzed using instrumental neutron activation analysis, and concentration of major and trace elements was calculated. For some elements, the concentrations observed in moss samples were higher than corresponding values reported from other sites in the Antarctica...

Lichens are often found growing on exposed rocks or trees, where they face high levels of irradiation while in the desiccated state. To grow and survive, lichens must resist photodamage while desiccated and resume photosynthesis soon after hydration. Since PSII is often a target of desiccation-induced damage, lichens must render PSII largely inactive and/or minimize the amount of solar radiatio...

Upon rewetting, lichens lose polyols through leaching. We quantified leaching losses for 21 species under simulated rainfall. Polyol concentrations in these lichens range from 1.0 to 8.8%, with a mean of 2.8%. Leaching losses range up to about 7.5 mg (polyol)/g (lichen dry weight) in a typical rain event. The rate of polyol leaching declines exponentially, becoming negligible within 1 hour of c...

In northern Sweden, the availability of arboreal lichens (Bryoria fuscescens, Alectoria sarmentosa) as winter grazing resources is an important element in reindeer husbandry. With the industrialization of forestry, forests rich in arboreal lichens have diminished considerably. Here, we analyze how forestry has impacted lichen availability from the 1920's to the present day and model its future ...

South Korea is covered primarily by temperate vegetation; therefore, foliicolous lichens may not be expected to play an important role in its lichen flora. However, this study describes four foliicolous lichen species, Strigula concreta, S. macrocarpa, S. melanobapha, and S. subelegans, which are new to South Korea. These findings will lead to further research on foliicolous lichens and provide...

delta(13)C values of the lichens Ramalina duriaei and Teloschistes villosus collected in their natural habitat were repeatedly measured during 2 years. Results show variations in the stable carbon isotope ratios ((13)C/(12)C). Such variations are correlated to the seasonal rainfall, i.e. low values of delta(13)C of the lichens during the winter and high values of delta(13)C during the dry summe...

To test the applicability of lichens in the biomonitoring of atmospheric elemental deposition in a typical steppe zone of Inner Mongolia, China, six foliose lichens (Physcia aipolia, PA; P. tribacia, PT; Xanthoria elegans, XE; X. mandschurica, XM; Xanthoparmelia camtschadalis, XPC; and Xp. tinctina, XPT) were sampled from the Xilin River Basin, Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia, China. Twenty-five eleme...