Quantification of Branch Dwelling Lichens for the Detection of Air Pollution Impact
- 1 February 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Lichenologist
- Vol. 16 (3) , 297-304
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0024282984000505
Abstract
In the Athabasca Oil Sands area of Alberta, a study was carried out to test a lichen community transplant technique and to determine the influence of oil sands extraction and processing emissions on lichen cover of transplanted communities. Measurement errors of a photographic technique for the determination of lichen cover were dependent upon lichen species but were not correlated to lichen cover. When lichen covers were small therefore, relative errors were very large. Changes in cover of naturally occurring lichen communities on black spruce branches were not significant over a four-year period. Lichen communities transplanted under jack pine and white spruce trees had cover changes with time not different from naturally occurring communities even over a period of years.Significant (PEvernia, Cetraria, and Bryoria groups were reduced whereas Hypogymnia showed no response over a 3 year measurement period. Reductions in lichen cover were greater than the demonstrated precision of the technique.Keywords
This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
- Deposition of atmospheric pollutants as measured by lichen element content in the Athabasca oil sands areaCanadian Journal of Botany, 1980
- The influence of three sour gas processing plants on the ecological distribution of epiphytic lichens in the vicinity of fox creek and Whitecourt, Alberta, CanadaWater, Air, & Soil Pollution, 1980
- Lichen Transplant Experiments And Air Pollution StudiesThe Lichenologist, 1979
- Some Considerations in the Use of Point Quadrats for the Analysis of VegetationAustralian Journal of Biological Sciences, 1952