A Provisional Survey of Lichen Diversity in South-Central South Carolina, U.S.A., from the 19Th Tuckerman Lichen Workshop
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Opuscula Philolichenum, 11: 104-119. 2012. *pdf effectively published online 19June2012 via (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/philolichenum/) A Provisional Survey of Lichen Diversity in south-central South Carolina, U.S.A., from the 19th Tuckerman Lichen Workshop 1 2 3 4 GARY B. PERLMUTTER , JAMES C. LENDEMER , JOHN C. GUCCION , RICHARD C. HARRIS , BRENDAN P. 5 6 7 8 HODKINSON , WALTER P. KUBILIUS , ELISABETH LAY AND HAROLD P. SCHAEFER JR. ABSTRACT. – The Tuckerman Lichen Workshop is an annual event where professional and amateur lichenologists convene to practice their skills in lichen identification while exploring the lichen diversity of an area in eastern North America. The 19th workshop in this series was held in the Augusta- Aiken area of Georgia and South Carolina from 11-15 March 2010. While we visited sites on both sides of the state line, this report presents checklists from three sites visited in South Carolina. Habitats visited represent the Piedmont and Southeastern Plains ecoregions and contain forested and rocky habitats, including granitic outcrops and bluffs, mesic and bluff forest, and sandhill oak-pine forest. We found a combined diversity of 255 taxa with 93, 125 and 148 taxa per site. Site lichen biotas were found to have low diversity similarities with Jaccard results each ≤ 0.25, and were found to differ in terms of habit (growth form) and substrate. Noteworthy finds include three recently described species: Caloplaca yuchiorum , Lepraria hodkinsoniana, and Ramboldia blochiana. Also newly reported for South Carolina are Graphis oxyclada and G. pinicola, both recently reported as new to North America. KEYWORDS. – Biodiversity, checklist, lichens, South Carolina, forest. INTRODUCTION The southeastern United States has received increasing lichenological attention in recent years resulting in the publication of a number of checklists (e.g. Beeching et al. 2008; Hansen & Lendemer 2008; Hodkinson 2010; Hodkinson & Case 2008; Hodkinson & Lendemer 2011; Hodkinson et al. 2009; Ladd 2009; Lendemer & Yahr 2004; Lücking et al. 2011; Perlmutter 2007a, 2007b, 2008, 2009; Perlmutter & Beeching 2011; Perlmutter & Lendemer 2008) and taxonomic works (e.g. Grube & Lendemer 2009; Lendemer 2007; Lendemer et al. 2008; Lendemer & Hodkinson 2009a, 2009b, 2010; Hodkinson & Lendemer 2011a, 2011b; Hodkinson & Lendemer in press). Yet despite the recent progress, the lichen biota 1 GARY B. PERLMUTTER – University of North Carolina Herbarium, North Carolina Botanical Garden, CB# 3280, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3280, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 2 JAMES C. LENDEMER – Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458-5126, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 3 JOHN C. GUCCION – 10313 Dickens Ave, Bethesda MD 20814-2131, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 4 RICHARD C. HARRIS – Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458-5126, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 5 BRENDAN P. HODKINSON – International Plant Science Center, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY 10458-5126, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 6 WALTER P. KUBILIUS – 1142 Ridgemont Drive, Aiken, SC 29803, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 7 ELISABETH LAY – 239 Marlborough St., Boston, MA 02116, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 8 HAROLD P. SCHAEFER JR. – 25 A Medway Street, Dorchester, MA 02124, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected]. 104 Figure 1. Map of South Carolina, U.S.A. depicting the three sites visited during the 19th Tuckerman Lichen Workshop in March 2010. (Map by Walt Kubilius.) of this part of the world remains poorly understood and requires substantial additional study. Such study is imperative considering that lichens are widely recognized as indicators of air quality and environmental health (McCune 2000), and many habitats in the southeastern Coastal Plain are threatened by a myriad of anthropogenic forces including habitat loss and climate change (Auch 2000, Griffith & Loveland 2001, Griffith et al. 2003, Ricketts et al. 1999). The Tuckerman Lichen Workshops were created by Dr. Richard C. Harris of the New York Botanical Garden in 1994 to train amateur naturalists in basic lichenology and lichen taxonomy through regular forays to locations throughout eastern North America (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/lichens/eln/, accessed 4 October 2010). These workshops have the additional objective of helping to catalogue the lichen diversity of this part of the world. The nineteenth workshop in this series was held in the Augusta-Aiken area of Georgia and South Carolina from 11-15 March 2010 to focus on the Fall Line area that separates the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions. While lichens collected in Georgia are included in the Georgia Lichen Atlas Project (Beeching & Hodges unpublished data), those from South Carolina are reported here. STUDY AREA Three sites were visited in South Carolina during the workshop. These sites include: 1) Stevens Creek Heritage Preserve / Wildlife Management Area in Edgefield and McCormick counties north of Augusta, 2) Savannah River Bluffs Heritage Preserve in Aiken County along the state line with Georgia, 105 and 3) Hitchcock Woods in Aiken County in the town of Aiken (Fig. 1). Habitats include rocky bluffs and a variety of forests in the Piedmont and Southeastern Plains ecoregions (Griffith et al. 2002). The sites straddle both sides of the Fall Line, the boundary that separates the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain geological provinces and runs from New York City to Birmingham, Alabama, passing through Augusta, Georgia. The geology of the Piedmont is ancient igneous and metamorphic rocks, whereas the rocks of the Coastal Plain are younger in origin, lying in horizontal layers of unconsolidated sediments of sand, gravel and clay. Sediments of the Coastal Plain were derived by erosion of the adjacent Piedmont, and transported to their current place by rivers and ocean currents. Not only does the Fall Line separate two geological provinces, but also two ecoregions: the Piedmont and Southeastern Plains, as the geology influences the soils of an area, which in turn influences the vegetation and other biotic communities. More detailed descriptions of the sites visited are as follows: STEVENS CREEK – Stevens Creek Heritage Preserve / Wildlife Management Area is situated in the Piedmont along a stretch of Stevens Creek, which is a tributary of the Savannah River. At 17 mi. (27 km) NW of Augusta, this 434-acre (176-ha) preserve is managed by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR). Habitats include a ridgetop pine forest dominated by Pinus taeda and P. echinata that slopes down into ravines of mesic mixed hardwood forest to a well-developed floodplain with old growth forest next to the creek. Adjacent to the floodplain is a bluff, composed of ancient Precambrian / Paleozoic aged gneiss and granitic rocks (Secor 1987). Vegetation of this bluff was discovered to contain what former UNC Herbarium Director Al Radford called “a relic of a once more wide-spread mixed mesophytic forest that grew in this area during the last glacial period of the Pleistocene” (Radford 1959). The preserve is also noteworthy for containing 15 rare plant species as well as the state-listed endangered Webster’s salamander (Plethodon websteri). Topographic relief in the preserve is about 145 ft (45 m) [elevation range: 230-375 ft (70-115 m)]. Source: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/mlands/managedland?p_id=15 (Accessed 7 April 2012). SAVANNAH RIVER BLUFFS – Just outside the city limits of North Augusta, South Carolina, Savannah River Bluffs Heritage Preserve is a 84-acre (34-ha) SCDNR-managed area along the slopes adjacent to the Savannah River. The preserve contains 1075 ft (328 m) of river frontage on one of the few remaining river shoals of the Savannah River, harboring the rare Rocky Shoals Spider Lily (Hymenocallis coronaria). Rocks which make up the shoals and bluffs are Piedmont metavolcanics and metasediments of late Precambrian or early Paleozoic age. The vegetation is mesic mixed forest with alluvial elements and a mix of Piedmont and Coastal Plain species. The preserve is also home to the federally endangered Relict Trillium (Trillium reliquum) and other rare plants. Topographic relief in the preserve is about 180 ft (55 m) [elevation: 150-290 ft (45-90 m)]. Source: https://www.dnr.sc.gov/mlands/managedland?p_id=73 (Accessed 7 April 2012). HITCHCOCK WOODS – Hitchcock Woods is an 2100-acre (850-ha) privately owned equestrian preserve located in the town of Aiken in the Sandhills region of the Coastal Plain. The site is underlain by horizontal layers of unconsolidated sand, clay, and gravel, of Cretaceous and Eocene ages (Nystrom and Willoughby 1982). The area consists of a swampy lowland, which rises up to a small open disturbed area, the Chalk Cliffs, at the top of a hill. The Chalk Cliffs themselves constitute the highwall of a disused borrow pit, perhaps a hundred years old (W. Kubilius, pers. obs.). Since the quarry was abandoned, accelerated erosion has removed three feet of soil from just above and beyond the highwall, and lesser amounts backing away from the highwall, toward intact forest. On the cliffs is a pronounced hardpan. Vegetation in the Hitchock Woods included swamp forest, longleaf pine forest and an unusual, pine-oak- mountain laurel woodland, the lattermost atop Chalk Cliffs. Topographic relief in the area is approximately 245 ft (75 m) [elevation: 250-490 ft (75-150 m)]. MATERIALS AND METHODS An informal foray survey style was followed in the field, with participants collecting specimens representing the lichen biota of each site. Collections were studied and deposited in public and personal herbaria, including: NY (W.R. Buck, R.C. Harris, B.P. Hodkinson and J.C. Lendemer), NCU (J.P. Hollinger and G.B. Perlmutter), HB-GUCCION (J.G. Guccion), and HB-LAY (E. Lay). A set of GBP’s duplicates were deposited in USCH as part of an exchange program between NCU and USCH.