| Abstract Detail
Bryological and Lichenological Section/ABLS Podaril, Amy [1], Colbert, Jim [1]. Iowa’s Lichen Diversity: What’s Left After Over a Century of Habitat Destruction . Despite over 140 years of investigation, knowledge of Iowa’s lichen diversity and distribution is limited. Currently available data from recent collections and databases from 30 herbaria suggest that approximately 560 lichen species have been recorded for Iowa. Many of these species (136) have only been collected once in the state, and many species (155) haven’t been reported from the state after the year 1960 (34% of which were only collected once). It is likely that approximately 70 of Iowa’s reported lichen species are rare in, or extirpated from, the state. The historical collecting effort has not been uniform throughout space. The southeast corner of Iowa, in particular, has been poorly represented in previous collections, corresponding to only 89 (1.1%) of the total 7,575 accessions available prior to this study. Given the limited number of collections in this portion of the state, southeast Iowa was chosen as the area of focus for this study. After two years of investigation, field collection effort totaled 66.5 hours and 47.9 miles of hiking. A total of 149 species were identified from 384 collected specimens, 21 of which are new records for the state. Only 29 of the species found had been documented in southeast Iowa previously, and only one species (Cladonia scabriuscula) was found from the list of lichens thought to be rare or extirpated. Many of Iowa’s counties continue to lack current representations of their lichen biodiversity, and 21 of Iowa’s 99 counties have yet to have even a single lichen species reported. Further investigation of these areas could reveal populations of rare species, or additional evidence regarding the status of potentially extirpated species.
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Related Links:
Iowa Lichen Project
1 - Iowa State University, Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology , 251 Bessey Hall , Ames , IA, 50010, USA
Keywords:
lichen
biodiversity
Iowa lichens.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 2
Location: Firs North/Boise Centre
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2014
Time: 8:15 AM
Number: 2002
Abstract ID:93
Candidate for Awards:A. J. Sharp Award |
