Lichen Biodiversity of Northwestern Polk County, Florida:
Implications for Air Quality
4th place out of 30 at Southeastern-US Regional Convention!
The Florida Southern College Department of Biology traveled to Athens, GA on April 4-7, 2012 for the Annual SE Regional Convention! My poster won 4th place out of 30! I was also elected as the District 1 secretary for the entire SE region! The convention was hosted by the Association for Southeastern Biologists (ASB) and Beta Beta Beta (National Biological Honor Society)
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Click below to download the completed manuscript of this research or my poster from the convention.
Lichens are excellent indicators of atmospheric air quality because even relatively low levels of common air pollutants can significantly alter the physiology, composition, growth, distribution, and reproduction of lichen communities. This long-lived, cosmopolitan group of symbiotic organisms is frequently used to monitor air quality throughout the World, yet few attempts have been made to survey lichens in upland habitats of central Florida.
In this study, epiphytic lichen floras were surveyed in three distinct habitats:
Lichen species were photographed and measured, then collected and preserved in the FSC herbarium. Surveyed specimens were then taxonomically identified using a North American species key. To spatially display results, a GPS point was recorded for each specimen and imported into ArcGIS. Some of the common species collected in our region are:
In general, our results were consistent with previous studies; we found an increasingly diverse and abundant (i.e., healthy) lichen community as we moved further away from the urban center. |