Light burnt stump lichen Hypocenomyce anthracophila with a white edge and soredia as well as the lichen Hypocenemyce friesii − both thriving on an old burnt pine stump. DNA tests have shown both to belong to described groups, the former to a new family closely related to cup lichens and salt lichens and the latter related to, or possibly in the same family as, navel lichens. (Photo: Einar Timdal).
An old burnt tree stump in Rendalen, Hedmark County, hosting burnt stump lichen species. (Photo: Einar Timdal)
Lecidea tuberculifera was formerly known from just one collection, found in Skådalen in Oslo in 1947. The project has re-discovered the species in four localities in South Norway and DNA analyses have shown it doesn’t belong to the Lecidea group, but rather to an undescribed variety of another family (Lecanoraceae). (Photo: Einar Timdal)
An undescribed Lecidea species from the Folldal Mines. It is also found at the Lovise Smelting Works in Alvdal and at Yellowstone in the USA. This is the first know species in the Lecidea group that produces vegetative propagules of the soredia type. This is a dusty powder of fungal hyphae and algal cells which is seen in the photo as greenish-black “soot” on the edge of the brown, convex areoles. The photo includes disk shaped, sexual fruiting bodies − apothecia. (Photo: Einar Timdal)
Three disk lichens side by side. From left: Rust coloured and dependent on iron-rich (ferrous) rock, Lecidea silacea, the greyish brown Lecidea praenubila, a widespread species in the mountains, and the ubiquitous and normally grey Lecidea lapicida which takes on a rusty hue when it grows on ferrous minerals. (Photo: Einar Timdal, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo)

Lifting the lid on lichen

New species are uncovered in an ambitious lichen study which is mapping the extensive range of crustose lichens in Norway.

Denne artikkelen er over ti år gammel og kan inneholde utdatert informasjon.

Norway is a land of lichen, boasting almost 2,000 of the world's 16,000 species.

The multicoloured patches covering rocks across the country are testament to how lichen thrive in the region's varied topography, geology and climate.

Over the past two years researchers from the University of Oslo's Museum of Natural History have been studying the spread and diversity of the crustose lichen – by far the most common variety.

Twelve new species

The project focused primarily on so-called lecideoid lichen. A total of 2,403 specimens from 129 different species have been collected. Twelve new species were identified, as well as 12 previously not found in Norway.

These new findings, along with DNA analyses and revisions of university collections, have expanded our knowledge of the population and the spread of a range of species – including the genera Biatora, Lecidea, Lecidella, Miriquidica, Porpidia and Rhizocarpon. These groups encompass most of the lichen common on rock, as well as some species living on bark, wood and soil.

Slag heap and fire lichen

Among the new species were two specifically adapted to grow on slag heaps from copper and iron mining. Slag heap lichen are coloured by the minerals in the ground; those living on copper slag become verdigris green, while those living on iron are rust red. Although one of the species had been found once before – in Yellowstone National Park – it had previously not been named or described.

The study also focused on another specialised group: post-fire lichen, growing in habitats decimated by forest fires. DNA analyses revealed that several lichen of the Hypocenomyce genus actually weren't closely related, but belonged to four different subclasses in the tree of life; they merely seemed similar as they had adapted to the same habitat. In total, four new genera, two new families and two new subclasses of the Hypocenomyce lichen have been identified through this project.

Barcoded lichen

 

Molecular analyses and DNA sequencing have been central to the lichen project, as part of adding the species to the international Barcode of Life reference database. A total of 102 species of lecideoid crustose lichen were DNA sequenced and included in the Norwegian Barcode of Life. This will make it much easier to identify new findings in the future.

All species have also been entered into the 'species map' of Artsdatabanken (the Species Name Database), hosted by the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre, to ensure public access.

There is still much we don't know about this strange organism – but in the land of the lichen, our knowledge is growing.

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Read a Norwegian version of this article at forskning.no

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