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The presence of lichenology on the World Wide Web (WWW) can be screened by on-line directories (1, 2) or by one of the common search engines using the key words 'lichenology' or 'lichenized fungi'. Both show that a wide range of lichenological information is already available. The increasing number of these electronic publications includes checklists, on-line keys, information systems, herbarium and literature databases, the International Lichenological Newsletter etc., and indicates that the internet becomes more and more accepted as a medium for rapid exchange of information and as a complement to paper bound publications.

On-line floristic checklists on the WWW cover supernational areas such as the whole of North America, or individual countries. Eighteen national checklists are currently available: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela. Other national checklists are in press or in progress. The degree of lichenological exploration varies in these geographic units and much work is still to be done, but their open-ended on-line publication facilitates updating as soon as any additional information becomes available. For some of the better explored countries, lists of threatened lichens are included, which may also aid in the development of a global red list of lichens (3). Using the individual lists as sources, it is now also tried to provide checklists for larger areas, such as the Mediterranean (4) or even at a world-wide scale. The compilation of all checklists in the world is an initiative by T. Feuerer (Hamburg, 5) who also suggests a common data format to standardize lichen checklists. However, this does not yet apply to taxonomy. Whereas taxonomic inconsistencies of generic concepts across checklists can be handled by a thesaurus of synonyms, the situation is more complex at the species level. Taxonomic checklists to particular groups of lichens, e.g. a global list of parmelioid lichens (6) or foliicolous lichens (7) can be helpful in this respect.

On-line versions of regularly updated articulate keys to taxa are currently compiled by H. Sipman (Berlin, 8). The keys cover particular taxonomic groups or geographic units. More keys can be retrieved from other sites, such as a key to Caliciales of Norway (9). Worldwide keys to foliicolous lichens are currently prepared by R. Lücking (Bayreuth, 10). These are embedded in a comprehensive information system, composed of numerous web pages and including images of foliicolous lichens, as well as a list of ecological parameters of species, the checklist of foliicolous lichens and that of their lichenicolous fungi. Apart from these keys in traditional format, interactive keys are available as subsets of the LIAS project, which is discussed further below.

A wealth of herbarium information on lichens is also available on-line, either as lists (11, 12), as specimen images (13), or as searchable databases. The latter are well established dynamic web resources, which exist for various smaller and larger herbaria and either to parts of the herbaria, such as type collections or to the entire collections. Some of these resources already try to link different databases. The database of Nordic lichens by E. Timdal (Oslo) is an excellent example, which links 7 Scandinavian herbaria (14). The latter site also maintains the databased form of Recent Literature on Lichens, which originates as a series of publications in the Bryologist. The on-line form allows complex searches for lichenological literature. The database of Italian lichens initiated by P.L. Nimis (Trieste) is a similarly complex lichenological resource. Started as a simple text checklist, and later transformed to a database, it has now become an integrated information system on lichens in Italy (15). It includes forms to search for distribution of taxa in Italy, for taxa found under selected ecological conditions, for literature references on lichens in Italy, etc. Links are available to the database of the lichen herbarium in Trieste and other herbaria in Italy. Moreover, images of the potential distribution of taxa in Italy are available.

Apparently, progress in lichenology on-line is directed at the integration of different resources and to join individual efforts. This is also the aim of the Global Information System for Lichenized and Non-Lichenized Ascomycetes, briefly LIAS, by G. Rambold (Bayreuth, 16). It includes descriptions of taxa, image collections, interactive keys, an other information. Both the description of taxa and the interactive keys are based on the DELTA format for descriptive data. Data standardization and compatible formats in different ressources are indispensable prerequisites to develop interoperable lichenological web applications (See 17). Once these are fully available, distributional or ecological data can be combined with descriptional and taxonomic data to create specific sets of information, e.g. determination keys for lichens in specified geographic regions or under particular ecological conditions.

Both the simple information repositories and the more sophisticated applications allow to connect the contemporary knowledge across all fields of lichenology, while still relying on the stable fundaments of paper bound publications of the original data.

1: http://www.unomaha.edu/~abls/resources.html

2: http://www.helsinki.fi/kmus/botcryp.html

3: http://www.dha.slu.se/guest/global3.htm

4: http://biobase.kfunigraz.ac.at/medlichens.html

5: http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/biologie/ialb/herbar/lichenw.htm

6: http://www.ut.ee/lichens/cetraria.html

7: http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/planta2/ass/robert/lichens/checkfol.html

8: http://www.bgbm.org/sipman/keys/default.htm

9: http://www.thavibu.com/caliciales/keyes.htm

10: http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/planta2/ass/robert/lichens/key_genera.html

11: http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~oberma/li-grz1.htm

12: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~wetmore/

13: http://linnaeus.nrm.se/botany/kbo/ach/welcome.html.en

14: http://www.toyen.uio.no/botanisk/lav/

15: http://dbiodbs.univ.trieste.it/askita1.html

16: http://www.mycology.net//lias/index.cfm

17: http://habanero.nhm.ukans.edu/

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