| International Lichenological Newsletter Vol. 33, nr. 2, December 2000 | |
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| Table of Contents |
NewsONCOMING MEETINGS: IMC7 in Oslo, 11-17 August 2002 ABLS annual meeting in Albuquerque, 12-16 August 2001 GLAL-5 in Valparaíso, 19-23 November 2001 Nordisk Lichenologisk Förening, excursion to Western Sweden, 2-5 August 2001
5th International Flora Malesiana Symposium in Sydney, 9-14 September 2001 Second Russian Lichenological Field Meeting in Volgograd, 1-8 May 2001 B.L.S. Summer meeting in Dorset, 6-13 July 2001
As of Nov. 14, 2000, Irwin (Ernie) Brodo retired from his position as Research Lichenologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature after a tenure of 35 years. The event was marked by a marvelous party held at the Museum organized by friends at the Museum. For the present, the Museum is allowing Ernie to occupy his former space and has given him an "emeritus" status, so he will continue to do lichen research as before (especially work on British Columbia lichens, rare lichens of Canada, and studies of Lecanora and Ochrolechia). The Museum has no plans to replace Ernie's position with another lichenologist, but the lichen collection that he built from 1965 until now (growing from 18,000 to over 115,000) will remain intact. This summer, Ernie will be giving a short course on crustose lichen identification at the Humboldt Field Research Institute at Steuben, Maine. Andreas Frisch (Regensburg), student of Klaus Kalb, is following his taxonomic studies in the Thelotremataceae. His main interest are the African species and those with a complex columella in the ascomata. Recently he visited Martin Grube in Graz, to extend his studies by molecular approaches. Katherine A. Glew (USA) accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. She started instructing botany and ecology courses in the biology department, beginning in August of this year. Katherine will be continuing her research with alpine lichen ecology and lichen floristics of the Pacific Northwest. This past summer she joined Francois Lutzoni, Jola Miadlikowska, Valerie Reeb and Stefan Zoller, from The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, for a collecting foray in the Pacific Northwest. H. Kashiwadani and K.H. Moon (National Science Museum, Tokyo) spent 25 days in November 2000 in Vanuatu for lichenological expedition. They made collection in Espiritu Santo, Efate and Tanna Islands. M.J. Lai (Tunghai Univ, Taiwan) and K. Vongshewarat (Ramkhamhaeng Univ. Bangkok, Thailand) visited H. Kashiwadani at the National Science Museum for one week in November. They were working on lichen specimens of Taiwan and Thailand respectively. Simone Louwhoff (Canberra) submitted her Ph.D thesis on "The Lichen Genera Hypotrachyna and Parmotrema in the Pacific Islands" at the Australian National University in Canberra, on December 5th, 2000, just in time to move to the other side of the world and take up the lichen curator post at the Natural History Museum, starting January 8th, 2001. Asunción de los Ríos moved from Graz to Madrid to start a three-year post-doctoral position at the Centro de Ciencias Medioambientales (CSIC). Together with C. Ascaso she will work on adaptive strategies of seleted lichens and their accompanying micro-organisms in maritime and continental Antarctic zones. Roger Rosentreter (Boise) hosted Dr David Eldridge from Australia for two weeks this fall 2000. They are collaborating on rangeland health monitoring methods that are suitable for use in a wide range of ecological vegetation community types. Roger is also teaching a three day class on the "Ecology and Management of Biological Soil Crusts" for the US Department of the Interior. Felix Schumm (Stuttgart) collected about 1800 samples of Lichens in the Philippines (Mindanao, Leyte, Negros, Cebu) during two 4-week trips in 1999 and 2000. He is now determining Heterodermia, Pyxine, Dirinaria, as well as Pannariaceae and Graphidiaceae. He would appreciate the contact with lichenologists which have collected in the Philippines or elsewhere in SE-Asia and intends to collect lichens in Sulawesi in summer 2001. Jonathan Signoret (Metz) is a Ph.D. student with Prof. S. Muller and Prof. J.-F. Ferard, University of Metz, France and Prof. Chantal Van Haluwyn, University of Lille, France. He is developping a new technique for studying epiphytic lichens using both tree bark photographs and G.I.S. (Geographic Information System). Harrie Sipman (Berlin) just returned from a one month fieldwork stay in Singapore, aimed at a preliminary lichen catalogue, in collaboration with Prof. B. Tan from the National University of Singapore. He would welcome lichen collections from Singapore for study, in particular older ones which may document changes in the lichen flora. His student Luciana Zedda succesfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "The epiphytic lichens on the genus Quercus in Sardinia (Italy) and their value as ecological indicators" on 11th October.
Balashova N., Zavarzin A. (eds.), 1999. Biodiversity of the Leningrad Region. Algae, Fungi, Bryophytes, Lichens, Invertebrates, Fishes and Pisciformes. Transactions of St.Petersburg Naturalists Society, Series 6, Vol. 2 - St.Petersburg: St.Petersburg University Press. 432 pp. Soft cover, ISBN 5-288-02365-4. Available from: St.Petersburg Naturalists Society bibliographer, Universitetskaya emb., 7/9, St.Petersburg 199034, Russia. The book is free of charge. The volume summarises data on diversity of various organimal groups including lichens in the Leningrad region and published since 18th century. It contains reviews of historical studies on the region, annotated species lists, as well as references for published data. Chapter 3 is devoted to lichenological studies and contains an extensive English summary. A total of 722 species of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi are not the final checklist for the Leningrad region as there are still several vast areas which are completely unexplored, but this work will promote further studies. The presented publication is displayed also at the Russian Lichenological Resources Internet site, by Vitaly Kulakov from the Volgograd State Pedagogical University (http://www.vspu.ru/lichens/). Alexei Zavarzin, St.Petersburg, Russia Gilbert, O. 2000. Lichens. The New Naturalist Library. 288 pp. Soft cover. ISBN 0-00-220082-1. Price: £19.99. Available from HarperCollins Publisher. This book has a different focus than common textbooks on lichens. Only the first 4 of 13 chapters are devoted to the general topics such as morphology, historic uses, the role in ecosystems and the use as bioindicators. All further chapters describe the lichen diversity in British habitats. Acid rocks, heaths and moors, chalk and limestone, mountains, rivers, lakes, the coast, man-made substrates are treated in detail and particular localities in Britain are highlighted. It is probably not a text for the novice in lichenology, and some knowledge about the diversity of species is necessary, but it is a comprehensive book on habitat ecology of lichens. The book is well illustrated with 16 color plates, numerous photographs, and many informative line drawings. I wondered a bit why conservation is only discussed in connection with church-yards. Anyway, the book fits perfectly in the New Naturalist series aiming to interest the reader in the wildlife of Britain. Due to the amount and accuracy of ecological information on lichen habitats it is highly recommended and of great value, also for lichenologists outside Britain. The Editor Hoffmann, N. & Hafellner, J. 2000. Eine Revision der lichenicolen Arten der Sammelgattungen Guignardia und Physalospora (Ascomycotina). Bibliotheca Lichenologica 77: 190 pp. Soft cover. ISBN 3-443-58056-4. Price: 110 DM. Available from Gebrüder Bornträger Verlagsbuchhandlung. The authors present a revision of the lichenicolous pyrenomycetes with hyaline, non-septate ascospores. This group of fungi was very poorly studied, and almost all previously known species had to be transferred to other genera: amongst the 17 species keyed out under Guignardia and Physalospora in Clauzade et al. (1989, Bull. Soc. linn. Provence, Num. spéc. 1), only one single species is accepted in the genus where it was placed in 1989. Both Guignardia and Physalospora are now restricted to species growing parasitically or saprophytically on plants. The generic concepts of Lichenochora and Zwackhiomyces have been enlarged to include also non-septate species. The genus Myxophora, all previously known species of which are associated with cyanobacteria, comprises now also five lichenicolous species, all growing on cyanobacterial lichens. The genus Obryzum is accepted, with two species confined to Leptogium. A new monotypic genus, Telogalla Nik. Hoffm. & Hafellner, is introduced to accommodate the species commonly known as Guignardia olivieri. Other species studied belong to Biciliopsis, Epibryon, Gyrophthorus, Roselliniella, Sagediopsis, Thamnogalla and Verrucaria. The authors perfectly succeeded to abandon the classical taxonomy of lichenicolous pyrenomycetes, in which completely unnatural groups were recognized, based on a small number of characters, like the form, septation and colour of ascospores, and the presence or absence of hamathecial filaments in mature ascomata. Instead, they used a much larger character set, including excipular pigments, the excipular texture, the nature of hamathecial filaments, ascal characters, etc., and were thus able to propose a more natural classification. This is a long-awaited monograph, which should belong to the library of each lichenologist working with lichenicolous fungi, and for which the authors are warmly congratulated here. Paul Diederich, Strassen Kantvilas, G. & Jarman, S.J., with photographs by B.A. Fuhrer 2000. Lichens of Rainforest in Tasmania and south-eastern Australia. Flora of Australia Supplementary Series Number 9: 1-212. ISBN 0 642 56802 2 (pbk:); ISSN 1323 2169 (series). The Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. Soft cover, approximately 240 colour photographs. Price Au$ 40.00 plus postage and handling costs (Australia Au$ 5.00, other countries Au$ 15.00). Copies can be obtained from: The Tasmanian Herbarium, GPO Box 252-04, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001. The cool temperate rainforests of the Southern Hemisphere host a remarkable diversity of lichens. This book provides an outstanding introduction into a world of unusual plants. It includes introductory chapters on the nature of lichens and on the distribution and biogeographical relationships of the Tasmanian lichen flora, a section on the distribution and ecology of lichens in Tasmanian rainforest followed by illustrations (with superb colour photographs) and descriptions of 127 species (mainly macrolichens) with short notes on the genera. Chapters like classification and identification of lichens are followed by a key to more than 200 Tasmanian rainforest lichen species. An appendix on the macrolichens recorded in Tasmanian rainforest, arranged alphabetically according to family, a glossary of technical terms, references and an index complete this exceptional publication. Compliments to Gintaras, Jean and Bruce - this booklet unites consistently sound lichenology and a popular style of presentation. It will surely bring lichenology closer to the public. Helmut Mayrhofer, Graz Purvis, W., 2000. Lichens. Life series. 112 pp. ISBN 0-565-09153-0 (ISBN 1-560-98879-7). Soft cover. Price: £9.95 ($ 14.95). Available from the Natural History Museum, London, and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. William Purvis, a lichenologist at the Natural History Museum, London, has produced an appealing little book that serves as an ambassador for the lichenology. Lichens have a special mystique - symbiotic associations small in size, modest in morphology and cryptic in reproduction that, none-the-less, have inestimable value as early indicators for biodeteriotation. By example, lichens teach us that intimate and long-term cooperation has evolutionary fitness and that the ability to colonize seemingly inhospitable habitats opens up wide expanses of the lichen's surface. Those who would be interested in these nifty dual organisms, and there are many, previously had to keep up with the complexities of the interlinked life cycles of the component fungi and their photosynthetic algae and cyanobacteria, the composite morphologies and chemistries found neither in free-living fungi or algae, and the physiological adaptations to extreme environments through lichenological guides, textbooks and scholarly articles. As a highly specialized discipline with a population that teeters dangerously close to local extinctions, lichenology did not have a single publication that can nourish a young student, pique an interested amateur, or captivate the scientifically literate public; not to mention something to give welling-meaning family and friends that could explain why you study lichens. Now we have Purvis's book that meets many of these needs. The 112-page paperback with a preface and eleven chapters presents timely information on a diversity of topics in lichenology. The eclectically titled chapters cover the most of modern lichenology ranging from traditional taxonomy and classification to ecosystem ecology, and from basic biology lichen to applied biomonitoring and metal prospecting. Mindful of the student audience, the book provides nine pages of practical projects that would be terrific for science fairs. Although writing at a level that is accessible to these students, Purvis does not sidestep current controversies in lichenology and gamely includes species pairs, photomorphs and mechanical hybrids. Their clear explanations can benefit even professional lichenologists. But, buy the book for the saturated colors. From Xanthoria orange cover to cover, the book gathers 158 color photographs from a diversity of credited photographers that show lichens (even pyrenolichens!) are beautiful. It would be hard to recommend a favorite, although the S. & S. Sharnoff's bulls-eye Cryptothecia and B. Hilton's lichen pocked gravestone come close. Even a herbarium specimen collected by Charles Darwin looks attractive in this format, thanks to the book designer David Robinson and high resolution printing by Craft Print, Singapore. Photographs and micrographs are illustration clear in showing structures and techniques. For, example, the box "Tests for lichen substances" provides the ultimate how-to for doing a spot test. More interestingly, the book has taken classic illustrations in lichenology and enlivened them with vibrant greens and oranges, Schwendener's definitive illustration of the dual symbiosis, James and Henssen's zoned photomorphs, Ahamadjian's imprisoned alga, Ott's Xanthoria life cycle, Lange's photosynthetic fixation curve, Honegger's functional thallus section, Hawksworth and Rose's UK pollution map. William Purvis has done an excellent job with this book and lichenology stands to benefit. Every lichenologist should have this book on the bookshelf as an introduction to lichenology. But, be ready to give them away, because everyone will want one. At a modest list price of $14.95, and widely available at discounted prices, you can afford to give them away, or at least enthusiastically recommend them, to students looking for science-fair projects, to teachers, to librarians, to science journalists, to search committees, to college lecturers . . . This little lichen book would be a value at twice this price. Paula De Priest, Washington
A new journal: Ecological Indicators The new journal Ecological Indicators will be launched in 2001. The journal is aiming at an integration of monitoring and assessment of ecological and environmental indicators with management practices. Further information: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolind. |