Northwest Lichenologists - High Elevation Lichens? NWL Presentation to Mazamas?

11 Nov 2016 7:28 PM

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Message # 4380672

Deleted user

Hello all, I have harbored lichen curiosity for quite awhile and am finally educating myself. I'm working my way through this website and books (McCune & Geiser, 2009; and Vitt, Marsh, & Bovey, 1988). My primary hobby is mountaineering and the fact that lichens are often the only flora life at high elevation and/or on rock makes them stand out. I'm wondering, has there has been any focus or studies on high elevation lichens in the PNW? Google has returned some studies but all in other regions of the US or world, and I don't have academic journal access within the field.

In addition, per the getting involved information, "Invite NWL to offer a training for your school, agency, or other group. If you can arrange a place, purpose, and trainees, we will try to provide a trainer", I am wondering about the possibility of arranging a presentation to the Mazamas mountaineering organization in Portland. The Mazamas hold Wednesday night presentations throughout the Winter and an amateur awareness of lichens would greatly appeal to and benefit the group! It may even be a seed for collaboration of difficult-to-reach research areas.
http://mazamas.org/activities-events/evening-travel-programs/

I look forward to participating in the group and learning more!

13 Nov 2016 8:03 AM

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Reply # 4382282 on 4380672

Bruce McCune (Administrator)

There hasn't been as much attention to high-elevation lichens in the PNW as one would expect. Katie Glew did her thesis on a set of alpine sites in Washington; Bruce Ryan published one or two papers on Chowder Ridge in the North Cascades; I wrote a paper on alpine summits in the Bitterroot Range in Montana and Idaho; there was a group paper on some high country in the Wallowas (Matterhorn and Ice Lake). There are probably some other publications that I am forgetting, but not many. A number of us have made numerous incidental collections in the high country, and many of these have very interesting species -- for example the shoulders of Mt Hood that get blown free of snow, such as Barrett Spur.

What is really missing is study of the tops and high ridges of the highest peaks. I have been to only one, South Sister. Up high on the loose rock the lichens were almost absent, but the stable outcrops near the top had quite a lot. Lichenologists tend to be active outdoors, but not so much into mountaineering.

Seems like something could be worked out to collaborate with the Mazamas. If the mountaineers were trained in what to look for and how to collect, maybe there could be a productive group effort where actual mountaineers gathered specimens and lichenologists helped to identify them. Most of the diversity would be crustose species on rock, requiring compound scopes, and some might require thin-layer chromatography for IDs.

27 Nov 2016 1:21 PM

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Reply # 4413802 on 4380672

Richard Droker

Not in the PNW but possibly of interest is some information I came across in “Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, Revised Second Edition” by D.J. Galloway 2007, regarding Carbonea vorticosa:

"Along with Lecanora polytropa, it was recorded from a height of 7,400 m in the Himalaya, the highest known records for lichens on earth (Hertel 1977a, 20001). Recently it was recorded from the La Gorce mountains in Antarctica at lat. 86° 30'S, 147° W, the most southerly locality known for lichens (Broady & Weinstein 1998).”

Didn’t follow up with Galloway’s references, one (Hertel 1975) being in a book in German, and the other (Broady and Weinstein 1998) in the journal “Antarctic Science”.

Øvstedal and Smith 2001. Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia, A Guide to their Identification and Ecology” comments “C. veticosa, together with Lecidea cancriformis and Sarcogyne privigna are known from La Gorce Mts (86°30’S. 147°00’W) in the Transantarctic Mountains, and represent the farthest south lichens in the world (Broady & Weinstein 1998, Seppelt et al. 1998).

Wonder if higher (exposed rock on Everest is not far below 8,848m) and further south (southernmost exposed rock is Mt Howe which pokes through the ice at 87° 22′ 0″ S) lichens have since been found. I’m not very good at finding information online and looking right now don’t find more on this.

14 Dec 2016 9:24 PM

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Reply # 4460864 on 4382282

Deleted user

Bruce McCune wrote:
There hasn't been as much attention to high-elevation lichens in the PNW as one would expect. Katie Glew did her thesis on a set of alpine sites in Washington; Bruce Ryan published one or two papers on Chowder Ridge in the North Cascades; I wrote a paper on alpine summits in the Bitterroot Range in Montana and Idaho; there was a group paper on some high country in the Wallowas (Matterhorn and Ice Lake). There are probably some other publications that I am forgetting, but not many. A number of us have made numerous incidental collections in the high country, and many of these have very interesting species -- for example the shoulders of Mt Hood that get blown free of snow, such as Barrett Spur.

What is really missing is study of the tops and high ridges of the highest peaks. I have been to only one, South Sister. Up high on the loose rock the lichens were almost absent, but the stable outcrops near the top had quite a lot. Lichenologists tend to be active outdoors, but not so much into mountaineering.

Seems like something could be worked out to collaborate with the Mazamas. If the mountaineers were trained in what to look for and how to collect, maybe there could be a productive group effort where actual mountaineers gathered specimens and lichenologists helped to identify them. Most of the diversity would be crustose species on rock, requiring compound scopes, and some might require thin-layer chromatography for IDs.

Sorry for the long delay - I'm finishing my PhD so have been working on other science. =)

Bruce, do you have titles or citations for those articles? How is access to journals?

Some sort of partnership with the Mazamas could definitely be arranged, with a range of possibilities and involvement (planned survey, convenience sampling, etc.). It should be noted that the Mazamas offer multiple research grants every year, $3500 to POs and $2000 to students. Applicants need not be Mazamas members. Feb 03 and Feb 10 2017 are the upcoming submission deadlines so there is time available to write a grant.
http://mazamas.org/resources/research-grants/

14 Dec 2016 9:29 PM

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Reply # 4460866 on 4413802

Deleted user

Richard Droker wrote:
Not in the PNW but possibly of interest is some information I came across in “Flora of New Zealand: Lichens, Revised Second Edition” by D.J. Galloway 2007, regarding Carbonea vorticosa:

"Along with Lecanora polytropa, it was recorded from a height of 7,400 m in the Himalaya, the highest known records for lichens on earth (Hertel 1977a, 20001). Recently it was recorded from the La Gorce mountains in Antarctica at lat. 86° 30'S, 147° W, the most southerly locality known for lichens (Broady & Weinstein 1998).”

Didn’t follow up with Galloway’s references, one (Hertel 1975) being in a book in German, and the other (Broady and Weinstein 1998) in the journal “Antarctic Science”.

Øvstedal and Smith 2001. Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia, A Guide to their Identification and Ecology” comments “C. veticosa, together with Lecidea cancriformis and Sarcogyne privigna are known from La Gorce Mts (86°30’S. 147°00’W) in the Transantarctic Mountains, and represent the farthest south lichens in the world (Broady & Weinstein 1998, Seppelt et al. 1998).

Wonder if higher (exposed rock on Everest is not far below 8,848m) and further south (southernmost exposed rock is Mt Howe which pokes through the ice at 87° 22′ 0″ S) lichens have since been found. I’m not very good at finding information online and looking right now don’t find more on this.

Thanks for more info, Richard. Those tidbits are intriguing. It would be interesting to know how species at high elevations in the PNW compare. Diversity, distribution, size, growth rate, hardiness, air sensitivity, etc. I don't even know what I don't know would be interesting to investigate!