Notes on the distribution of lichen biota of Podlasie. III. Nowosady village, Podlaskie province (north-eastern Poland)

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the biodiversity of lichen species in Nowosady village and surrounding areas. This work was conducted in 2014 (in August) and biodiversity of lichen species growing on tree bark and bushes, on dead wood (anthropogenic origin), glacial erratics, concrete, mortared walls and other specific substrates like eternit roof slates has been assessed. The lichen species represented morphologically diverse forms: crustose (38%), foliose (38%), fruticose (13%), dimorphous (5%), placodial (3%) and squamulose (3%). They belonged to different ecological types including epiphytes (27 species), epixyles (18)

Lichens in the agricultural land of Poland – diversity, threats, and protection: a literature review

“…In the Polanowska Upland 146 species were collected in open areas covered by meadows, pastures, bounds, fallow lands, and psamophilous grasslands, while in villages, settlements and gravel pits 116 species were observed [5]. The biota of particular villages and their surroundings is mainly represented by several dozen lichen species [23,24,26,[29][30][31][32][33][34]44], rarely exceeding 100 taxa [27]. Species diversity is related to, among others, ecological factors of the sampling localities, including their climatic conditions, the availability of suitable habitats and substrates, but also to the land use.…”

“…A high species richness of epiphytic lichens in the agricultural land is underlined in many papers. This habitat group comprises heliophilous, nitrophilous, and coniophilous lichens mainly from the genera Physcia, Physconia, Ramalina, and Xanthoria (e.g., [3,6,8,[24][25][26][27]33,45,[57][58][59]). Bark of roadside and free-standing trees, as well as phorophytes growing in mid-field afforestations and mid-field peat bogs, gardens, orchards, and country parks seem to create favorable habitats for many epiphytes in rural areas (e.g., [1][2][3]5,7,12,20,27,[30][31][32][33][34][38][39][40][41][42][43][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68]).…”

“…), and alder (Alnus sp.) [3,5,8,10,13,15,16,18,21,23,26,27,29,[30][31][32][33][34]39,44,45,58,59,66,[68][69][70][71][72][73].…”

“…Afterwards, these data were supplemented by the information from the Bieszczady Mountains (S Poland [38,39,44]), Poręba Wielka in Gorce [64,65], the Wiśnickie Foothills (S Poland [46]), the commune of Sławno (central Poland [43]), the Nowotomyska Plain (W Poland [3,42]), and the Lower Vistula Valley (N Poland [40,41]). Numerous lichen species were found in orchards located in mountains and foothills [36,38,39], and they were sampled mainly on the bark of apple and pear trees [3,30,31,33,36,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]46,64]. More than 60% of threatened and protected species in vanished villages in the Bieszczady Mts were found on bark of fruit trees [44].…”

“…Timber constructions are common elements of regional architecture in some parts of Poland, e.g., Podlasie, and they are favored by lichens associated with dead and rotting wood [29]. Epixylous lichens are known to occupy fences, posts, bridges, and another man-made constructions [3,[7][8][9]11,[13][14][15][16][17][18]22,24,26,27,[29][30][31][32][33][34]45,46,48,71,72,[77][78][79][80]. Roadside wooden crosses, being a part of the regional cultural heritage in Polish rural areas, are atypical wooden substrates that are colonized by lichenized fungi [23,26,27,29].…”