A small number of lichens produce ephemeral fruit bodies that last for less than a year, they belong to genera such as Absconditella, Epigloea, Sarcosagium, Steinia, Thelocarpon and Vezdaea. Many are found in transient, terricolous, often man-made habitats and niches where competition is low. Poelt and Vežda (1990) have reviewed the sparse literature on ephemeral lichens. Since then, a two year study of Thelocarpon laureri in the Sheffield area (Gilbert 2001), has shown this species behaving as a spring ephemerophyte, the number of fruits peaking in April and May. Colonies persisted for 18 months (two fruiting periods). This short paper extends such observations to Sarcosagium campestre.

Lobaria pulmonaria is an epiphytic lichen that, in south-eastern Canada, inhabits deciduous forests where it must acclimate to large seasonal changes in temperature and in light caused by closing and opening of the leaf canopy. On a seasonal timescale, this acclimation occurs via large shifts in the macromolecular complexes of the photosynthetic system, within a photobiont population that shows no seasonal change in cell numbers. In this study, samples of L. pulmonaria were harvested in February and in May from a natural population near Sackville, New Brunswick, and subjected to two simulated intense seasonal changes: (1) early spring warming, simulated by a shift from high light at 5°C to high light at 16°C (February shift), and (2) late spring canopy closure, simulated by a shift from high light at 16°C to low light at 16°C (May shift). Thallus samples were collected daily throughout each week-long shift. There were no significant changes in photobiont cell population size or in the fraction of cells dividing during either shift. During the first day of the February temperature shift, there were, however, large changes in the pools of chlorophyll, the major light capture molecule in the photobionts, the PsbA (D1) core protein of photosystem II whose turnover is highly responsive to changing light and temperature, and the RbcL major subunit of the carbon-fixing RUBISCO enzyme whose levels correlate strongly with achieved photosynthesis in lichens. A static population of photobionts was therefore able to perform large and rapid macromolecular reallocations to cope with rapid environmental change. No significant changes were seen in the chlorophyll, photosystem II or RUBISCO pools across the May light shift, although seasonal-scale macromolecular reallocation does occur in response to decreased light in the summer.

The Antarctic endemics Umbilicariakappenii and U. antarctica are morphologically close, but mainly distinguished by their reproductive strategies. Umbilicaria antarctica propagates by means of thalloconidia. Umbilicaria kappenii lacks thalloconidia, but exhibits a variety of asexual propagules: soredia, adventive lobes and thallyles. We have now employed molecular data from three gene regions to examine the phylogenetic relationships of these two morphotypes. The phylogeny of ten samples and four outgroup taxa (Umbilicaria decussata, U. krascheninnikovii, U. nylanderiana, U. umbilicarioides) was reconstructed using Bayesian and maximum parsimony analyses of a combined data set of nuclear ITS, nuclear LSU rDNA and mitochondrial LSU rDNA sequences. Forty two new partial sequences of 14 specimens were generated. Our results indicate that all samples morphologically referred to U. antarctica and U. kappenii form a monophyletic group. A topology separating the two morphotypes as phylogenetic species is significantly rejected with the data set. It is proposed to place U. kappenii into synonymy with U. antarctica.

Several epiphytic specimens of the genus Leptogium (Ach.) Gray with a foliose thallus and numerous marginal and laminal isidia collected in central and southern Spain, and previously identified as Leptogium magnussonii Degel. & P. M. Jørg., varied considerably. Two morphological forms have been differentiated: one with clusters of granulose or coralloid, aggregated isidia, identified as typical L. magnussonii and the other with clavate to dactyliform isidia as in L. subaridum P. M. Jørg. & Goward. Meanwhile, when studying the lichen L. lichenoides from some European herbaria, three epiphytic specimens belonging to L. subaridum, one from Morocco, one from Italy and the other from Greece, were identified. These new records of the latter species extend its distribution from NW America to S Europe and N Africa. In addition, mature apothecia are reported for the first time. We briefly characterize the species based on material from the new localities using the morphological and anatomical terminology proposed in Jørgensen (1994).

Seasonal growth increments (%) were measured in the foliose epiphytic lichen Pseudocyphellaria berberina in north-western Patagonia. Growth was determined by measuring increase in weight (expressed as percentage of the original biomass) in transplanted thalli. Transplants were either hung freely from wooden frames or attached to tree trunks in a Nothofagus dombeyi forest and then weighed every three months between January 2001 and April 2003. The influence on growth increment of treatment, donor thallus, temperature, and absolute and relative humidity was analysed. Mean annual growth increment after two years, in both treatments was 12±1·07% (±SE). Growth increment was greatest in winter and lowest in summer; the mean winter growth increment was 6±0·50%, representing half of the annual growth, whereas most of the remaining growth occurred during both spring and autumn. Growth increments were similar for freely-hanging lichens and for the transplants attached to tree trunks. Individual trees had no consistent effect on growth while the donor thallus had a significant effect in the first season which then diminished, indicating acclimation in the transplants. Initial transplant weight had no influence on final cumulative growth, nor was there any consistent correlation between one season and another in the growth of transplants. Both transplantation methods proved to be useful for experiments on the growth of P. berberina.

Canopy lichen abundance was assessed by size class on regenerating hemlocks, comparing trees of similar size and age (c. 120–140 yrs) growing in the understorey of old-growth cedar-hemlock stands with those growing in adjacent even-aged hemlock stands (natural origin patches c. 1–3 ha in size). Five chlorolichen taxa were associated with old-growth understorey trees: Cavernularia hultenii, Hypogymnia vitatta, Parmelia hygrophila, Platismatia norvegica, and Usnea spp. Lobaria pulmonaria was the most abundant cyanolichen on regenerating hemlock in the old-growth forest stands, particularly in lower canopy (under 12 m) exposures. However, other cyanolichen taxa such as Nephroma helveticum, Sticta fulginosa, and Pseudocyphellaria anomala, reached their greatest abundance at mid-canopy (12–24 m) positions. Smaller cyanolichen thalli (<9 cm2) were abundant on regenerating hemlocks across all canopy positions in the old-growth forest, raising the question as to whether or not cyanolichen thalli in mid- to upper-canopy environments represented long-established individuals facing severe growth constraints, or were simply thalli that had experienced higher rates of fragmentation, and thus did not achieve larger sizes. In comparison, cyanolichens of all taxa were essentially absent from the small-patch even-aged forest stands. Given that dispersal of propagules was not likely a major limiting factor, these 120–140 year old even-age stands may not yet have attained sufficient old-growth characteristics (especially canopy microclimate and canopy throughflow enrichment) to support cyanolichen growth. These findings have major conservation biology implications for wet interior cedar-hemlock forests in British Columbia, where forest harvesting is creating a mosaic of even-aged stands, whose projected age at the time of next harvest (rotation age) will be 120 years or less.

Verrucaria papillosa Ach. (1803) is one of the earlier published names in the lichen family Verrucariaceae, and is still in use today; it is listed as an accepted species in recent checklists and floras including Clauzade & Roux (1985), Coppins (2002), Nimis (1993), Santesson (1993) and Santesson et al. (2004). However, examination of the holotype in April 2004 showed that it falls within the current concept of Verrucaria viridula (Schrad.) Ach.

Collembola are terrestrial arthropods that prefer humid environments, probably because their relatively thin chitinous carapace is vulnerable to dehydration. They feed primarily on algae, but certain Collembola may feed on lichens (Leinaas & Somme 1984). They are often found in lichen samples, but the lichens involved do not generally appear to be damaged. Microclimatic conditions within lichens may favour occupation by Collembola as the humidity in the interior of foliose lichen thalli may be relatively high compared to that of the surroundings (Prinzig & Wirtz 1997).

The spatial pattern of lichen species richness was analyzed in a forest ecosystem impacted for 50 years by industrial emissions from a steelworks. Geostatistical tools were used to characterize the spatial pattern of the number of lichen species and multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors influencing it. Spatial analysis showed high variation of lichen species richness on a local scale, caused by patchiness of natural habitat factors (species composition of trees, their age, shade, etc.). On a large spatial scale, species richness differentiated the western from the eastern part of the forest. The western part, closer to the sources of pollution, had fewer species (average 6–10 per locality) than the eastern part (10–15 per locality). Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between the species richness of lichens and several environmental variables: input of ions with bulk precipitation (SO42−, NO−3, Cl−, Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe3+, Zn3+, Pb2+, Cd2+), distance to forest edge, tree stand age, and number of species per locality. Regression analysis was preceded by factor analysis for the input of ions to obtain uncorrelated variables. Regression explained 53% of the variation of lichen species richness. Highly significant predictor variables were the factor connected with the input of pollutants (Fe3+, Zn2+) emitted by the steelworks (negative effect) and the number of trees per locality (positive effect). Species richness was also affected by the age structure of the tree stand; more species were recorded in old forests.

In a recent article (Lange & Wagenitz 2003) we analysed the variation and historical changes in the meaning of the old lichenological term ‘phycolichen’. We came to the conclusion that the word is not suited for use as a name for green algal lichens because of the considerable ambiguity generated by its previous usage. Instead we recommended the name ‘chlorolichen’, a term that appeared to have been used rarely in the lichenological literature; we found it only in publications by Sillett & Goslin (1999) and Ellyson & Sillett (2003). At the time we were not able to determine its origin but this puzzle has, in the meantime, been solved. It was Vernon Ahmadjian who introduced this word as a counterpart for cyanolichens (V. Ahmadjian in litt). He first used the term in 1989 when he wrote “… enough species of lichens with green photobionts (chlorolichens) have been synthesized …” (p. 29), and he also applied the term in his book ‘The Lichen Symbiosis’ (Ahmadjian 1993: 123). Thus, it is to the credit and innovation of Vernon Ahmadjian that we have available the short forms ‘chlorolichens’ and ‘cyanolichens’ for the two functional groups of lichens with either green algae or with cyanobacteria, respectively, as their main photobionts.

The genus Caloplaca is taxonomically difficult. Many species are characterized by a combination of morphological traits, and there are only a few useful microscopic characters. The secondary chemistry is rather uniform and of little taxonomic value, notwithstanding the usually bright pigmentation.

An interesting calicioid lichen has been collected as a consequence of the study that our research group is developing in the Iberian meridional beech forests. One of these is the forest Natural Reserve “Chaparral de Montejo” (Madrid Province), which represents one of the southern biogeographic limits of Fagus sylvatica in the Iberian Peninsula. The geological substratum is Silurian clayey slate. It is located in the Supramediterranean belt of central Spain. Sclerophora peronella has been found for the first time in the Iberian Peninsula and for the third time in southern Europe. The previous records in S Europe are from Calabria (Italy) by Puntillo (1992) and from Corse (France) by Vězda (Lich. Sel. Exs. 828).