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Background

Lichen are not plants, but rather a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae and/or cyanobacteria. Macrolichen (leafy or bushy lichen) that grow on trees obtain all their nutrients from the surrounding air, moisture, and rain, which means that they also absorb many of the chemicals and pollutants present in the air and can serve as mini living air quality monitors, or bioindicators. You can learn more about lichen and their main functional groups in this research note

This page will hopefully be helpful to folks at various stages in the air quality study design process. Anyone just starting to design an air quality study or reassessing an ongoing study can use this wiki to assess whether bioindicators can and should be integrated into the study.

Use Cases and Limitations

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Methods

Categories of Methods

	Elemental Analysis	Community Analysis	Physiological Assessment	Transplant Study
Description	Collect lichen samples for laboratory analysis to determine identifies and concentrations of elements of interest	Collect and compare information on richness, abundance, and presence/absence of indicator species over geographic space or time.	Analyze changes in lichen anatomy and photosynthetic ability of naturally occurring lichen or transplanted specimens in response to exposure to pollutants. Examples of parameters to measure include chlorophyll concentrations, chlorophyll fluorescence, cell membrane integrity, CO2 exchange capacity.	Transplanting healthy lichen to a test area and measuring physiological response and/or elemental accumulation.
Expertise Required
Equipment
Cost
Considerations

Specific Methods

Community Analysis

Physiological Assessment

Elemental Analysis

Other Guidance for Study Design

Determining Lichen Species of Interest

Spatial Sampling

Converting Observations to Air Quality Indicators

Consulting Experts

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Questions

Research notes

Wikis

Activities

Resources

Hands-On Learning