Methods for obtaining more complete species lists in surveys of lichen biodiversity
21 December 2015
Vondrak, Jan; Malicek, Jiri; Palice, Zdenek; Coppins, Brian; Kukwa, Martin; Czarnota, Pawel; Sanderson, Neil; Acton, AndyWe tested two methods to obtain more complete species inventories in surveys of lichen biodiversity. The first was to employ eight lichenologists (all experienced, some specialists) acting as individuals in parallel in a competitive survey. The second was to organise those lichenologists into two competing teams. We show that overall biodiversity recorded is distinctly higher than the part of lichen biodiversity recorded by each single lichenologist (45–66%) or team (79–83%). Use of these methods in a survey of epiphytic and epixylic lichens resulted in a list containing 112 species in 1 ha, 192 species in 12.5 ha and 212 species for 30 km2 of lowland floodplain old-growth forest in the SE of the Czech Republic. Eleven recorded species are new to the country; four are rediscovered after more than 50 years. In comparison, few previous surveys of mixed montane forests in the same general region have yielded more than 200 species, even though it is certain that those forests have greater lichen diversity than our lowland forest.