Transplants of the lichen Hypogymnia physodes, which is relatively tolerant to SO2 and heavy metals, were deployed for 3 months over a 60 km long SW-NE transect centered on a highly polluting Cu smelter and its adjoining town of Karabash, southern Urals, Russia. The abundance of 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb, and 204Pb were determined by MC-ICP-MS. The measurement of 204Pb revealed critical features, whi...

In the long-term absence of major disturbances ecosystems enter a state of retrogression, which involves declining soil fertility and consequently a reduction in decomposition rates. Recent studies have looked at how plant traits such as specific leaf mass and amounts of secondary compounds respond to declining soil fertility during retrogression, but there are no comparable studies for lichen ...

The concentrations of selected metals-Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb-were determined in the samples of Hypogymnia physodes lichen and Pleurozium schreberi moss collected in Polish and Czech Euroregions Praded and Glacensis. More specifically, the samples were collected in Bory Stobrawskie, Bory Niemodlińskie, and Kotlina Kłodzka (Poland) and in Jeseniki (Czech Republic). The concentration of metals...

Epiphytic lichen diversity in a dieback-affected forest of red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) on Whiteface Mountain, New York, U.S.A., was higher on dead compared with living trees and on fir compared with spruce. Diversity differed more between living and dead spruce than between living and dead fir. Cover of all lichen species that occurred on more than...

The lichen transplant monitoring methodology has been tested for source apportionment of metal deposition around the Cu smelter and former mining town of Karabash. Transplants of the lichen Hypogymnia physodes (L.) Nyl., collected from a 'control' site in July 2001, were set up at 10 stations along a 60 km NE-SW transect centred on Karabash. Samples were collected after 2 and 3 month monitoring...

The composition and significance of physodes, brown algal subcellulai bodies characterized by reactivity with vanillin-hydrochloric acid, have been the subject of debate for the past Century. This research is critically reviewed, and it is demonstrated that aJthough physodes aie primarily composed of phloroglucinol derivatives, they may also contain other tannins and terpenes. The recent discov...

Several lichen species have been used for medicinal purposes throughout the ages, and they were reported to be effective in the treatment of different disorders including tuberculosis, hemorrhoids, ulcer, dysentery and cancer. It is revealed that they may be easily accessible sources of natural drugs that could be used as a possible food supplement or in pharmaceutical industry after their safe...