Epiphytic lichens constitute an important component of biodiversity in both deforested and forest ecosystems. Widespread occurrence is the domain of generalist lichens or those that prefer open areas. While, many stenoecious lichens find shelter only in a shaded interior of forests. Light is one of the factors known to be responsible for lichen distribution. Nevertheless, the effect of light intensity on photosynthesis of lichen photobionts remain largely unknown. We investigated photosynthesis in … Read more... 

Lichens comprise highly diverse and complex microbial communities, the majority consisting of mycobiont, photobiont, Basidiomycetes yeast and bacteriobiont (internal bacterial communities). In this study, bacterial diversity of foliose lichen was reported. Next generation sequence (NGS) such as Illumina Sequencing (150*2) of 16S rRNA (V3 and V6 region) was used to delineate the bacterial communities associated with five foliose lichen samples. Bacterial sequences obtained from lichen samples suggested … Read more... 

Despite the high relevance of communities dominated by lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria living on the soil surface (biocrusts) for ecosystem functioning in drylands, no study to date has investigated the decomposition of biocrust-forming lichen litter in situ. Thus, we do not know whether the drivers of its decomposition are similar to those for plant litter (for example, importance of abiotic degradation through UV radiation), the magnitude of lichen decomposition rates and whether they will be … Read more... 

Pollen, palynomorphs, and rhizopods were studied from several < 1 m thick, peaty and silty sediment sections on southwestern October Revolution Island, Severnaya Zemlya. Six AMS radiocarbon ages from the sections show that peat accumulation started at ca. 11,500 and stopped after 9500 cal. yr BP, consistent with several previously reported 14C ages. Open steppe-like vegetation existed on the island during the late Glacial, shortly before the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Environmental conditions … Read more... 

Desoprtion of 137Cs from samples of Cetraria islandica lichen using HCl (A) and HNO3 (B) acid solutions with pH values from 2.00 to 3.75 was investigated. After five consecutive desorptions lasting 24 h it was shown that between 52.2% (solution B pH 3.28) and 72.2% (solution A pH 2.00) of 137Cs was desorbed from the lichen and the initial desorptions were the most successful. Lichen desorbed with the stated solutions did not undergo structural changes. The amount of absorbed water from solutions … Read more...