The lichens of the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland in the limits of St. Petersburg, Russia – diversity on the edge of the megapolis

Abstract


 
 
 We present a lichen checklist for the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland in the limits of St. Petersburg, Russia. This area has diverse lichen biota within the city limits, and has been comprehensively studied since 1893, which gives a good base for analysis of historical changes in lichen diversity. The documented lichen biota comprises 469 species (430 lichenized, 24 lichenicolous, 3 facultatively lichenicolous, and 12 non-lichenized saprobic fungi), of them 191 species are known from herbaria and literature for the period before 1991, and 436 species were recorded since 1991 to 2019. Thirty-three taxa were excluded from the lichen list of the study area as erroneous or dubious records. Altogether 48 species are new to St. Petersburg, including: Lecidea malmeana and Micarea czarnotae – new to Russia; Caloplaca lucifuga, Gyalecta nigricans, Micarea soralifera – new to European Russia; Agonimia flabelliformis, Endococcus verrucosus, Lecania turicensis, Micarea fallax, M. tomentosa, Xanthomendoza huculica – new to Northwestern European Russia; Lichenoconium lichenicola, Ramalina europaea, Sarcogyne hypophaea – not known also from the Leningrad Region. The studied lichen biota is moderately rich compared to other city territories. The history of economic development of the region has caused its serious transformation, degradation of natural habitats and therefore partial loss of lichen diversity. At the same time, human-made substrates and anthropogenic plant communities are inhabited by lichens, including species unknown in the natural habitats of the study area. However, 44 species recorded in the study area are red-listed in St. Petersburg, with 13 of them known only from historical collections. Forest communities, as well as historical parks, in NW part of St. Petersburg are important source of biodiversity on regional level nowadays and hopefully in future, and deserve protection.
 
 

Are lichens coming back? Strelninsky Bereg Protected Area (St. Petersburg, Russia)

“…An average amount of species per SA was 33.1±3.7, with minimum 12 (young shadowy spruce alley, SA 7), and maximum 56 (black alder forest with bird cherry, SA 2). This average number is similar with territories along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland within St. Petersburg, where an average is 33.3±1.3 (Stepanchikova et al, 2020), but significantly lower than in more remote territories of the Leningrad Region or even St. Petersburg with very rich lichen diversity. For example, in the proposed protected area Motornoe-Zaostrovje (LR) an average amount of species per standard SA was 58.6±3.1 (Stepanchikova et al, 2022), in Konevets Island (LR) -47.7±2.6 (Himelbrant et al, 2018), in proposed protected area Pukhtolova Gora (SPb) -49.7±5.5 (Stepanchikova et al, 2021), and in the valley of the Smorodinka River (LR) -42.9±4.0 (Stepanchikova et al, 2013).…”

“…65 km 2 (Osobo…, 2012(Osobo…, -2022. The lichen diversity in most of them has been investigated properly (see, e. g., Atlas…, 2016;Stepanchikova et al, 2020). Noteworthy that a huge part of the contemporary lichen biota of St. Petersburg, ca.…”

“…90%, is known from the protected areas (Himelbrant et al, 2017). Although St. Petersburg is a city with the most studied lichen diversity in Russia (Krasnaya..., 2018;Stepanchikova et al, 2020), the investigations on the protected areas still can bring new discoveries.…”

Four new and two resurrected species of Bacidina from Sweden, with notes and a preliminary key to the known Scandinavian species

“…Habitats include rotten bark of Sorbus auciparia , rotten wood and rusted metal. The species has previously been reported from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Lithuania (Coppins and van den Boom 2002), Poland (Kubiak and Sparrius 2004), Germany (Otte 2005), Austria (Berger and Priemetzhofer 2010), Estonia (Oja et al 2016), the Czech Republic (Malíček et al 2014), Russia: St. Petersburg (Stepanchikova et al 2020), United Kingdom: England (Coppins and Aptroot 2009) and the United States: Alaska (Spribille et al 2020).…”