Chapter 6 - Lichen species to bioindicate air quality in Eastern United States from elemental composition: lessons from the Midwest
| Authors: | Susan Will-Wolf, Sarah Jovan, Michael C. Amacher |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Type: | General Technical Report |
| Station: | Southern Research Station |
| Source: | In: Potter, Kevin M.; Conkling, Barbara L., eds. 2018. Forest health monitoring: national status, trends, and analysis 2017. General Technical Report SRS-233. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. Pages 101-114. |
Abstract
Elemental concentration in lichens is a popular and cost-effective tool to bioindicate pollution load at plots (Donovan and others2016, Paoli and others 2014, Root and others 2015) and to complement costly instrumented monitoring to help assess environmental health. From recent development of lichen elemental bioindicators for air pollution in the U.S. upper Midwest (Will- Wolf and others 2017a, 2017b, In press) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), we learned important lessons about suitability of lichen species in large-scale monitoring programs for the Eastern United States. Five macrolichen species common in Eastern North America (E NA) (Brodo and others 2001)1 were evaluated in that study: Evernia mesomorpha (code Evemes; small/medium size fruticose growth form), Flavoparmelia caperata (code Flacap; large foliose), Parmelia sulcata (code Parsul; medium foliose), Physcia aipolia and P. stellaris combined (code Phyaip; small foliose, tightly appressed), and Punctelia rudecta (code Punrud; large foliose). Elemental data and multi-element Pollution Indices derived from them clearly represented relative site pollution load better than did regionally modeled pollutant deposition (Will- Wolf and others 2017a), as has also been found in other studies (e.g., Bari and others 2001, Boquete and others 2009, Geiser and Neitlich 2007, Root and others 2015). Evemes, Flacap, and Phyaip were recommended as bioindicator species for the study region (Will- Wolf and others 2017a, In press).