Opuscula Philolichenum, 11: 145-302. 2012. *pdf effectively published online 23October2012 via (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/philolichenum/) The Annotated Checklist of Lichens, Lichenicolous and Allied Fungi of Channel Islands National Park 1 2 KERRY KNUDSEN AND JANA KOCOURKOVÁ ABSTRACT. – For Channel Islands National Park, at the beginning of the 21st century, a preliminary baseline of diversity of 504 taxa in 152 genera and 56 families is established, comprising 448 lichens, 48 lichenicolous fungi, and 8 allied fungi. Verrucaria othmarii K. Knudsen & L. Arcadia nom. nov. is proposed for the illegitimate name V. rupicola (B. de Lesd.) Breuss, concurrently a neotype is also designated. Placidium boccanum is reported new for North America and California. Bacidia coprodes and Polycoccum pulvinatum are reported new for California. Catillaria subviridis is verified as occurring in California. Acarospora rhabarbarina is no longer recognized as occurring in North America. Seven species are considered endemic to Channel Islands National Park: Arthonia madreana, Caloplaca obamae, Dacampia lecaniae, Lecania caloplacicola, Lecania ryaniana, Plectocarpon nashii and Verrucaria aspecta. At least 54 species, many of which occur in Mexico, are only known in California from Channel Islands National Park INTRODUCTION Channel Islands National Park (heretofore referred to as CINP) in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties in southern California consists of five islands totalling approximately 346 square miles in area (221331 acres, 89569 ha, 900 km2). Santa Barabara Island, with an area of 1.02 square miles (639 acres, 259 ha, 2.63 km2) is the smallest island in CINP. It is a considered a member of the southern islands which include San Nicolas Island, Santa Catalina Island, and San Clemente Island, all outside the boundaries of the national park. The other four islands in CINP are called the northern islands and once formed a single island called Santarosae during a time of lower sea levels in the Pleistocene. They are Anacapa Island (699 acres, 283 ha, 1.14 mi2, 2.8 km2), Santa Cruz Island (60,645 acres, 24,542 ha, 96.51 mi2, 249.95 km2), Santa Rosa Island (52,794 acres, 21,365 ha, 83.12 mi2, 215.27 km2), and San Miguel Island (9,325 acres, 3,774 ha, 14.7 mi2, 37.74 km2) (Wikipedia, 2012). None of the islands were ever connected to the mainland of California. The northern islands represent the northwest end of the Transverse Ranges of southern California which include the Santa Monica Mountains and extend southeast to the Little San Bernardino Mountains in Joshua Tree National Park. The geology of the islands is comprised of various volcanic and sedimentary rocks on San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Island with extensive marine terraces. Santa Barbara and Anacapa Island are primarily volcanic rock. Caliche can be found on San Miguel and Santa Rosa Island (Weigand 1998). The oceanic climate and the calcareous and non-calcareous rocks support a diverse community of saxicolous lichens. The marine terraces support biological soil crusts, which were probably extensive, before grazing, erosion, and the introduction of non-native plants. On all of the islands, the cessation of grazing, has allowed biological soil crusts to begin to become reestablished. Channel Islands National Park hosts approximately 790 plant taxa, of which about 578 are native and 205 are nonnative (CINP 2012). Major native plant communities are coastal sage shrub, maritime 1 KERRY KNUDSEN – Herbarium, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521–0124, U.S.A. – e-mail: [email protected] 2 JANA KOCOURKOVÁ – Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Kamýcká 129, Praha 6 - Suchdol, CZ–165 21, Czech Republic. – e-mail: [email protected] 145 chaparral, and forests of island oaks, mixed hardwoods, pine, and riparian trees. These plant communities support a rich diversity of epiphytic macrolichens and crusts, including 17 species of Usnea. The introduction of non-native animals including sheep, cattle, pigs, and rabbits (the latter on Santa Barbara Island) had a significant impact on vegetation, denuding large parts of the islands and causing greatly increased erosion rates. However non-native animals, as well as introduced elk and deer (both on Santa Rosa Island), have been removed from the CINP. Throughout the islands the native vegetation is regenerating as is the lichen flora. Based on available data all of the lichens reported here are native to CINP. The only historical collections of lichens from CINP that we have examined are a small number of collections by Blanche Trask from Santa Barbara Island, some which can be found in the Farlow Herbarium at Harvard University (FH) and at New York Botanical Garden (NY). The major modern collections from CINP are those assembled by William Weber (University of Colorad, Boulder; COLO) and Charis Bratt (Smithsonian Institution (US) and Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (SBBG)), beginning in the 1980’s. The Sonoran Lichen Flora Project, led by Thomas H. Nash III (Arizona State Univeristy; ASU) and Bruce Ryan (ASU), with the help of Charis Bratt, led to the extensive collection of lichens in the mid- ninties on West Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Island by an international team of lichenologists. The three volumes of the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region (Nash et al. 2002, 2004, 2007), written by an international team of more than 80 lichenologists included both the southern and northern Channel Islands as well as the Santa Monica Mountains. It forms the foundation for the study of the lichens and lichenicolous fungi of CINP in the beginning of the 21st century. Our study of CINP began in 2006. There are a total of 9,361 collections of lichens, lichenicolous fungi, and allied fungi deposited in the four herbaria with significant collections from CINP (ASU, MIN (University of Minnesota), SBBG, and UCR (University of California, Riverside)) (CNALH 2012; UCR Herbarium 2012). These same herbaria contain 51,528 collections from the whole of California. Thus with 18% of the total number of lichen vouchers from California having been collected in CINP, the study area represents the most collected and studied area in the state in terms of Lichenology. Nonetheless, after the publication of the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region, new records and new species for the CINP continue to be discovered (Knudsen 2008, 2009a–b; Knudsen & Kocourková 2008, 2010; Knudsen & Lendemer 2009; Kocourková & Knudsen 2008, 2009a–c, 2010, 2011; Kocourková et al. 2009, 2012; Kukwa & Knudsen 2011; Lendemer & Knudsen 2010; Lendemer 2010; Lendemer & Hodkinson in review). During our studies, we have also discovered many remaining taxonomic problems that need to be resolved and identifications of specimens that need to be verified or revised, particulairly at SBBG. Much exploration for lichens also remains to be done in CINP. For instance, the majority of collections from Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands were made only near the main roads. The east end of Santa Cruz Island had not even been visited by lichenologists until our recent fieldwork. There have been no collections on the Middle Island of Anacapa. In fact we estimate that 75% or more of the total area of the islands has never been explored for lichens. Lichenicolous fungi as well as some lichen genera and substrates have also been undercollected, including epiphytic crusts on bark, sterile crusts, and biological soil crusts. There has also been no study of intertidal lichens, which are in danger of extirpation if ocean levels rise rapidly due to global warming. Several rare lichen species such as Harpidium nashii Scheidegger, Hypogymnia schizidiata McCune, and Tornabea scutellifera (With.) J.R. Laundon may be extirpated and should be the subject of targeted surveys to relocate and map any extant populations. Three species endemic to CINP are currently only known from their type collections and should be the subject of similar investegations. These include Dacampia lecaniae Kocourk. and K. Knudsen, Plectocarpon nashii Hafellner, and Toninia nashii Timdal. The discovery of Arthonia subdispuncta Nyl. ex Hasse on West Anacapa (Knudsen & Kocourková 2010a), a species apparently extirpated from the Santa Monica Mountains, gives us hope that other rare or extirpated taxa from the Santa Monica Mountains and southern California, such as Bacidia veneta S. Elman, Verrucaria dacryodes Nyl. ex Hasse (Plate 1, Fig. A), and Rinodina terricola Sheard and K. Knudsen (Plate 1, Fig. B) will be discovered in CINP. All of these areas of investigation have necessitated the publication of this preliminary checklist of CINP, officially sanctioned by the National Park Service, to guide further exploration, study, and prepare for the eventual publication of a lichen flora of the northern Channel Islands. 146 MATERIALS AND METHODS The identification of specimens was based primarily on the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region (Nash et al. 2002, 2004, 2007), except where other literature is cited for the description of the species in the header or in the notes. The identifications of specimens not seen by the authors were only accepted if made by recognized taxonomic experts, usually the assorted authors of the treatments of the Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region, or our collegue J.C. Lendemer (NY). All the idenifications of Channel Island specimens at SBBG, not verified by taxonomic experts or the authors of the present work, are here excluded from the species list and distribution data until they are revised in the future for a flora of CINP. Specimens at UCR needing further verification were also excluded but are searchable online http://www.herbarium.ucr.edu. Undescribed taxa mentioned in the literature or filed in the herbarium at UCR were also excluded. Verified new additions to the offficial checklist will be published in updates in future volumes of Opuscula Philolichenum.