Pacific Northwest Research Station

Title: Lichen bioindication of biodiversity, air quality, and climate: baseline results from monitoring in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Author: Jovan, Sarah.

Date: 2008

Source: Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-737. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 115 p

Station ID: GTR-PNW-737

Description: Lichens are highly valued ecological indicators known for their sensitivity to a wide variety of environmental stressors like air quality and climate change. This report summarizes baseline results from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Lichen Community Indicator covering the first full cycle of data collection (1998–2001, 2003) for Washington, Oregon, and California. During this period, FIA conducted 972 surveys of epiphytic macrolichen communities for monitoring both spatial and long-term temporal trends in forest health. Major research findings are presented with emphasis on lichen biodiversity as well as bioindication of air quality and climate. Considerable effort is devoted to mapping geographic patterns and defining lichen indicator species suitable for estimating air quality and climate.

Keywords: Acidophytes, air quality, California, climate change, cyanolichens, forest health, gradient analysis, indicator species, neutrophytes, nitrophytes, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, ordination, Pacific Northwest, pollution

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Citation

Jovan, Sarah.  2008.  Lichen bioindication of biodiversity, air quality, and climate: baseline results from monitoring in Washington, Oregon, and California..   Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-737. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 115 p.