Bio-monitoring in Western North America: What Can Lichens Tell Us About Ecological Disturbances?

Leavitt, Steven D.; Clair, Larry L. St.

doi:10.1007/978-81-322-2181-4_5

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…In this case, the lichen acts as an accumulator because they lack the protective cuticles of higher plants and the pollutants are mainly bound to the cell walls. This methodology is both cheap and applicable on a large scale, so both lichens and bryophytes have been used to monitor atmospheric pollutants such as mercury, arsenic, nickel, lead, and other heavy metals [6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Studies Show Lichens to be Excellent Biomonitors of Climate Change

2019

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Lichens have been used as biomonitors for multiple purposes. They are well-known as air pollution indicators around urban and industrial centers. More recently, several attempts have been made to use lichens as monitors of climate change especially in alpine and polar regions. In this paper, we review the value of saxicolous lichens for monitoring environmental changes in Antarctic regions. The pristine Antarctica offers a unique opportunity to study the effects of climate change along a latitudinal gradient that extends between 62° and 87° S. Both lichen species diversity and thallus growth rate seem to show significant correlations to mean annual temperature for gradients across the continent as well as to short time climate oscillation in the Antarctic Peninsula. Competition interactions appear to be small so that individual thalli develop in balance with environmental conditions and, as a result, can indicate the trends in productivity for discrete time intervals over long periods of time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Studies Show Lichens to be Excellent Biomonitors of Climate Change

2019

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“…While rock-posy lichens are commonly used for inferring the impact of potential pollutants, elemental accumulation patterns across broad geographic and temporal scales have not yet been characterized. As part of the larger biomonitoring program at Brigham Young University (https://lichenairquality.com; Leavitt & St. Clair, 2015), samples of R. melanophthalma aggregate were collected from over 96 sites primarily distributed throughout the Great Basin and adjacent areas between 2009 and 2015 (six samples were collected prior to 2009) for elemental analysis using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis. Section S1.2 further describe sampling and ICP protocols.…”

Section: Lichen Biomonitoring Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Multivariate receptor modeling with widely dispersed Lichens as bioindicators of air quality

et al. 2022

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Biomonitoring studies evaluating air quality via airborne element accumulation patterns in lichens typically control variability by focusing on narrow geographic regions and short time windows. Using samples of the widespread "rock-posy" lichen sampled across the Intermountain Region of the United States, we investigate whether accumulation patterns of generic pollution sources are detectable on broad geographic and temporal scales. We develop a novel Bayesian multivariate receptor modeling (BMRM) approach that sharpens detection and discrimination of candidate pollution sources through (i) regularization of source contributions to each sample and (ii) incorporating estimated lichen secondary chemistry as a factor. Through a simulation study, we demonstrate a distinct advantage in shrinking contributions when they are truly sparse, as would be expected with heterogeneous samples from dispersed collection sites. We contrast analyses employing both standard and sparse BMRMs, and positive matrix factorization (PMF). The sparse model better maintains source identity, as specified though informative prior distributions on elemental profiles. We advocate quantitative profile matching, which reveals that PMF primarily captures variations of the baseline profile for lichen secondary chemistry. Both PMF and BMRM results suggest that the most detectable signatures relate to aeolian dust deposition, while spatial patterns hint at sporadic anthropogenic influence.

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“…Both the species richness of epiphytic macrolichens and changes in the physical structures of specific species can be used to indicate air quality in an area [23,37]. Apart from assessing the effects of gaseous pollutants, lichen biomonitoring approaches were recently extended to a suite of other anthropogenic and ecological disturbances, such as land management practices and climate change [43,44]. Several aspects of lichen diversity (e.g., species richness and abundance, species composition, indicator species, functional traits, and groups) are usually considered in air quality monitoring, sustainable forestry, or ecosystem functioning [45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lichen Biodiversity and Near-Infrared Metabolomic Fingerprint as Diagnostic and Prognostic Complementary Tools for Biomonitoring: A Case Study in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula

Moya,

Chiva,

Catalá

et al. 2023

JoF

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In the 1990s, a sampling network for the biomonitoring of forests using epiphytic lichen diversity was established in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. This area registered air pollution impacts by winds from the Andorra thermal power plant, as well as from photo-oxidants and nitrogen depositions from local and long-distance transport. In 1997, an assessment of the state of lichen communities was carried out by calculating the Index of Atmospheric Purity. In addition, visible symptoms of morphological injury were recorded in nine macrolichens pre-selected by the speed of symptom evolution and their wide distribution in the territory. The thermal power plant has been closed and inactive since 2020. During 2022, almost 25 years later, seven stations of this previously established biomonitoring were revaluated. To compare the results obtained in 1997 and 2022, the same methodology was used, and data from air quality stations were included. We tested if, by integrating innovative methodologies (NIRS) into biomonitoring tools, it is possible to render an integrated response. The results displayed a general decrease in biodiversity in several of the sampling plots and a generalised increase in damage symptoms in the target lichen species studied in 1997, which seem to be the consequence of a multifactorial response.

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Bio-monitoring in Western North America: What Can Lichens Tell Us About Ecological Disturbances?

Cited by 6 publications

References 84 publications

Antarctic Studies Show Lichens to be Excellent Biomonitors of Climate Change

Antarctic Studies Show Lichens to be Excellent Biomonitors of Climate Change

Multivariate receptor modeling with widely dispersed Lichens as bioindicators of air quality

Lichen Biodiversity and Near-Infrared Metabolomic Fingerprint as Diagnostic and Prognostic Complementary Tools for Biomonitoring: A Case Study in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula

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