Piedmont Lichen Inventory
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PIEDMONT LICHEN INVENTORY: BUILDING A LICHEN BIODIVERSITY BASELINE FOR THE PIEDMONT ECOREGION OF NORTH CAROLINA, USA By Gary B. Perlmutter B.S. Zoology, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 1991 A Thesis Submitted to the Staff of The North Carolina Botanical Garden University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Advisor: Dr. Johnny Randall As Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Certificate in Native Plant Studies 15 May 2009 Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 2 This Final Project, whose results are reported herein with sections also published in the scientific literature, is dedicated to Daniel G. Perlmutter, who urged that I return to academia. And to Theresa, Nichole and Dakota, for putting up with my passion in lichenology, which brought them from southern California to the Traingle of North Carolina. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….4 Chapter I: The North Carolina Lichen Checklist…………………………………………………7 Chapter II: Herbarium Surveys and Initiation of a New Lichen Collection in the University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU)………………………………………………………..9 Chapter III: Preparatory Field Surveys I: Battle Park and Rock Cliff Farm……………………13 Chapter IV: Preparatory Field Surveys II: State Park Forays…………………………………..17 Chapter V: Lichen Biota of Mason Farm Biological Reserve………………………………….19 Chapter VI: Additional Piedmont Lichen Surveys: Uwharrie Mountains…………………...…22 Chapter VII: A Revised Lichen Inventory of North Carolina Piedmont …..…………………...23 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..72 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………….…..73 Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 4 INTRODUCTION Lichens are composite organisms, consisting of a fungus (the mycobiont) and a photosynthesising alga and/or cyanobacterium (the photobiont), which together make a life form that is distinct from either partner in isolation (Brodo et al. 2001). The relationship is a symbiosis, with the mycobiont providing a habitat for the photobiont, which in turn provides the fungus with carbohydrates for nourishment and in the case of cyanobionts with fixed nitrogen. While often considered a part of the vegetation (e.g. Godfrey 1997), lichens are classified as lichenized fungi with most mycobionts being sac fungi (Phylum Ascomycota) while a few are mushroom fungi (Phylum Basidiomycota). Lichens grow on most surfaces, including rocks, bark, wood and soil. They come in a wide array of colors from white to black, and include reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues and browns. Morphologically they are also varied, with three major growth forms or habits: crustose (crust-like), foliose (leaf-like) and fruticose (shrub-like or otherwise three-dimensional). Found in nearly all terrestrial habitats and a few aquatic ones, lichens are able to withstand extreme conditions from the Antarctic to the hottest deserts (Nash 1996), even experimental exposures to outer space (Schulte et al. 2006). Yet despite this hardiness, lichens are susceptible to air pollution, since they receive all their nutrients from the atmosphere without the protection of a cuticle as found in plants. Lichen diversity has been used as an indicator of air quality (Gries 1996) and forest health (Selva 1994), with richer floras being found consistently in cleaner, less disturbed and older environments. Prior to this study, very little was known of the lichen diversity of the North Carolina Piedmont habitats, as most of the research was reported from the mountains in the western part Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 5 of the state (e.g. Dey 1978, Heiman 1996, DePriest 2001) with only a few scattered reports from the Piedmont (Robinson 1959, Becker et al. 1978). The objective of this Final Project was to build a baseline of lichen biodiversity in the North Carolina Piedmont for future studies including those involving impacts of land use changes (i.e., real estate development and resulting habitat loss), air pollution and climate change. This Project consists of four stages: 1) a working checklist for the state of North Carolina compiled from the literature, 2) an annotated checklist of lichen taxa of the state's Piedmont region built largely from an extensive herbarium survey, 3) field surveys, and 4) a revised checklist of the Piedmont lichens incorporating specimens collected from earlier stages. The first two stages contributed to the background research to assess the knowledge of lichen diversity in the North Carolina Piedmont prior to field research. The third stage (i.e., fieldwork) included both collecting forays to state parks and a more structured plot-based survey of the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Mason Farm Biological Reserve. The fourth stage is a culmination of prior stage activities, and serves to provide a more comprehensive baseline of the lichen biodiversity for the North Carolina Piedmont, rendering stage two’s report largely obsolete. Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 6 LITERATURE CITED Becker, V.E., J. Reeder & R. Stetler. 1977. Biomass and habitat of nitrogen-fixing lichen in an oak forest in the North Carolina Piedmont. The Bryologist 80 (1): 93-99. Brodo, I.M., S.D. Sharnoff and S. Sharnoff. 2001. Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 795 pp. Godfrey, M.A. 1997. Field Guide to the Piedmont. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. 524 pp. Heiman, K. 1996. Macrolichens of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Evansia 13: 47- 57. Robinson, H. 1959. Lichen succession in abandoned fields in the Piedmont of North Carolina. The Bryologist 62 (4): 254-259. Schulte, W., R. Demets, P. Baglioni, P. Rettberg, R. von Heise-Rotenburg and J. Toporski. 2006. BIOPAN and EXPOSE: space exposure platforms for exo/astrobiological research in Earth orbit with relevance for Mars exploration. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 8, 06643. Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 7 CHAPTER I THE NORTH CAROLINA LICHEN CHECKLIST The first step toward building a baseline lichen diversity assessment anywhere is to determine what has already been reported in the literature. Therefore, prior to conducting any fieldwork, an extensive literature search was made for lichen taxa reported from North Carolina. The result of this literature review was a statewide checklist (Perlmutter 2005; Appendix I-A), listing 605 taxa of lichens and lichenicolous fungi for the state. The article, the first listing of lichens for North Carolina, was widely received by the lichenological community. Responses were from lichenologists from the USA and abroad, offering encouragement while pointing out mistakes and additional literature sources that were overlooked. With the help of one colleague an addendum to the checklist was made, listing an additional 128 taxa (Perlmutter and Greene 2005; Appendix I-B). The state checklist had since become a web-based document through the invitation to supervise an internet version on a global lichen checklist portal run by Dr. Tassilo Feuerer of the University of Hamburg, Germany. The advantage of an online checklist is that it can be updated with periodic review of additional literature sources, especially newer reports as the field of lichenology continues to produce many new discoveries. In essence, it is a living, growing document. Prior to Perlmutter (2005), the portal's list for North Carolina stood at 136 taxa in 2004. Currently this list has grown to 850 with an anticipated lichen flora of over 1000 species for the state (Perlmutter 2008; Appendix I-C), effectively rendering the earlier checklists obsolete. With further surveys and exploration the state lichen biota is expected to reach a richness of 1000 taxa within five years. Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 8 LITERATURE CITED Perlmutter, G.B. 2005. Lichen checklist for North Carolina, USA. Evansia 22(2): 51-77. ---. 2008. Checklist of lichens and lichenicolous fungi of North Carolina (USA). Version 1 July 2008. - http://www.checklists.de. --- and D.N. Greene. 2005. Corrections and additions to the North Carolina lichen checklist. Evansia 22(4): 126-137. Perlmutter – Piedmont Lichen Inventory Page 9 CHAPTER II HERBARIA SURVEYS AND INITIATION OF A NEW LICHEN COLLECTION AT THE UNIVERISTY OF NORTH CAROLINA HERBARIUM (NCU) After producing the North Carolina lichen checklist the next step in the background research phase of this Project was to survey the herbaria holdings for specimens collected in the North Carolina Piedmont. I first met with University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU) curatorial staff Alan Weakley and Carol Ann McCormick, to whom I proposed to review their collection and deposit specimens that I would collect during the field phase of the Project. As a measure of good faith, I deposited my initial reference collection of about 25 specimens from southern California in NCU. Review of the NCU collection and later that of Duke University cryptogamic herbarium (DUKE) co-incided with my initial collecting of local specimens to become familiar with the local lichen flora. An initial report, listing specimens from these herbaria, was produced for each Herbarium and a draft was prepared and submitted for publication in Castanea. Initial peer review by regional lichenologists prompted a re-examination of each of the above herbaria collections to verify specimen identities. With the permission from the journal's assigned Managing Editor, Dr. Paul Davison of the University of Alabama, a survey of internet-accessible specimen records of herbaria around the world was conducted, listing specimens