This document summarizes information about lichens, including their characteristics, habitats, threats, and conservation strategies. It describes lichens as a composite organism consisting of algae and/or cyanobacteria in symbiosis with fungi. It outlines the main growth forms of lichens and notes that they can grow in a wide variety of habitats, including trees, rocks, soil and buildings. It discusses threats like air pollution, fire, tourism and agriculture. It proposes conservation strategies such as in vitro techniques, botanical gardens, prioritizing biodiversity-rich areas, and awareness campaigns.

1. Under Supervision Of:
Prof. Anupam Dikshit FNASc.
Prof. H.K. Kehri
Dr. Anand Pandey
Presented By:
Swapnil Anand
Saurabh Yadav
M.Sc- 1st Sem

2. INTRODUCTION
Lichens can be defined as a composite organism consisting of two distinct and
dissimilar components, the mycobiont (fungal component) and photobiont (algal and
cyanobacteria component).
The lichens form a major component of Indian diversity with 2360 species.
The three main types of growth forms of lichen are known as Crustose,
Foliose and Fruticose
 Some intermediate growth forms are Leprose, Placodioid, Squamulose
and Dimorphic.
The fungal component usually dominates, and therefore the lichens are traditionally
being considered as fungi. (as stated by Hawksworth and Feurer, 2007).

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF LICHEN
• Lichens have a composite thalloid structure, formed by the
association of algae and fungi.
• The algal component of lichens forms carbohydrates by
photosynthesis which are utilised both by algal and fungal
components. The fungal component is responsible for the absorption
and retention of water.
• On the basis of the structure of thallus, lichens have been classified
into 3 broad categories and 1 intermediate category –
 Crustose lichens
(e.g., Graphis, Rhizocarpon)
 Squamolous lichens (intermediary)
(e.g., Cladonia )
 Foliose lichens
(e.g., Parmelia, Xanthoria, Peltigera)
 Fruticose lichens
(e.g., Usnea, Ramalina)

4. HABITAT
 Lichens can grow in wide variety of habitat.
 Lichen are commonly found growing on the old walls and roofs of
houses, leaves, bark of tree, bare earth and even unpromising rocky
surfaces.
 The lichens can also grow on rocks under the water and on old
monuments or buildings.
 The important parameters required for the growth and abundance of
lichens are adequate amount of moisture, light and altitude,
unpolluted air and undisturbed, perennial substratum.

5. Lichen Habitat
Corticolous Tree trunk and bark
Ramicolous Twig
Follicolous(Epiphyllous) Evergreen leaves
Muscicolous Moss
Legnicolous Dead wood
Saxicolous Rocks and boulders
Terricolous Soil

6. Why Lichens require special conservation measures?
• Most of them are very tiny, and hence it is not possible to
immediately notice the loss of species, changes in distribution
pattern.
• They quickly respond to air pollution and habitat changes.
• Many of their community dynamics and succession patterns
have not been fully studied.
• Lichens are vital components of ecosystem function regulating
the water cycle, mineral cycling(nutrient cycling).

7. THREATS TO THE LICHEN POPULATION
• AIR POLLUTION
FIRE
TOURISM
AGRICULTURE

8. AIR POLLUTION
• Industrialisation has followed the increase in
population, & air pollution has become an increasing
threat to lichen communities.
• Long range pollution, or events such as the release of
radioactive compounds in to atmosphere, have now
produced international concern over the control of
pollutants, & initiated lichen monitoring projects in
Turkey (Barth & Duthweiler, 1988).

10. FIRE
• Fire occurs naturally wherever seasonally dry climates occur,
& where there is fuel in the form of dry vegetation.
• In some situations lichen rich heaths are maintained by fire &
exclusion of fire favours the invasion of phanerogamic
vegetation & loss of lichen community.
• Regions where lichens are strongly associated with a forest
type, loss of forest will also result in loss of associated lichens.

11. TOURISM
• Tourism is identified as a threat in 25% of lichen sites.
• Coastal areas, where a combination of tidal regime & rock
type have allowed the development of rich lichen
communities, are also under threat due to tourism
development.
• Lichen communities are often rich in exposed areas above the
tree line on mountains, and these areas may be experiencing
increased pressure due to the development of ski stations &
ski fields.

12. AGRICULTURE
• Agricultural threats ranged from eutrophication caused by
inorganic fertilisers, to reclamation, & changes in grazing
routine or overgrazing leading to loss of terricolous species
(Brown et al. 1994).
• Change in long-standing agricultural practices such as removal
of grazing may alter the habitat to coarse grasses & scrub
which is detrimental to terricolous lichen communities.

13. CONSERVATION STRATEGIES FOR LICHEN
In Vitro Techniques for Lichen Conservation
Development & Management of Botanical
Gardens
Prioritization of Biodiversity rich areas
Awareness creation activities

14. In Vitro Techniques for Lichen
conservation
• The in vitro culture of lichen symbionts or re- syntheis of
whole thallus seems to be an alternative, especially for lichens
under threat in natural condition.
• In the recent years, some highly efficient methods have been
developed for cultivation of isolated symbionts as well as the
whole lichen tissue (Yamamoto et al. 1985, 1993).
• In India, many different lichen species have been cultured in
vitro & standardized for their physiological conditions (Behera
& Makhija, 2001 ; Behera et al. 2005).
• But the tissue culture technique of lichens is un-economical,
time consuming & has also proved to be unsuccessful in
certain cases.

15. Development & management of Botanical
Gardens
• As of now, no such dedicated lichen gardens are known from
the country.
• In some parts of the world, botanical gardens are known to
have well developed lichen flora, thereby aiding as a good
place for lichenological investigations.
• The factors such as varied habitats, less pollution, presence of
rare & endangered plants provide good opportunities for
lichen taxa to colonize successfully (Upreti & Nayaka, 2008).

16. Prioritization of biodiversity rich areas
• High conservation priority may be given to populations of extremely
rare or endemic species. For e.g. The old growth evergreen forests
in central Western Ghats form an important habitat for the native
biodiversity of lichen.
• The natural forests, devoid of much human interventions, have
been known to harbor a characteristic lichen flora which is not
present in secondary or fragmented forests(Bergamini et al. 2005).
• For successive development of these old growth restricted
epiphytic lichen species, we need to maintain the habitat for
continuous availability of the substrates in form of native tree
barks.
• At legal front too, many laws such as ‘Biological Conservation Act,
2002’ have been developed & modified from time to time.(Khan et
al. 2008)

17. Awareness creation activities
• The human activities involving the maximum utility in
agriculture, tourism, transport etc. has led to severe
destruction & depletion of natural resources.
• Hence, for developing biodiversity conservation measures, it
is imperative to aware different sections of societies through
communication, education & public awareness activities.
• It involves generating interactions, enthusiasm & ensure
participation of people rather than just making scientific
information available to the public.

18. INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES 0N THE CONSERVATION
OF LICHENS
• Forest Health monitoring program- Lichen as indicators of air
pollution/ United states Department of Agriculture/USA.
• MYCONET- a database on the development of fungal
classifications developed and maintained at Field Museum,
Chicago, USA.
• IUCN- Red Database/ Books on Endangered species of Lichens
• European guidelines for mapping lichen diversity as an
indicator of Environmental stress.

19. LICHEN CONSERVATION INITIATIVE IN INDIA
• There is no special initiative to conserve lichen diversity.
• Inventorying & documentation of the lichen rich
environments in Western Ghats, Eastern Ghats, Mangroves &
other forest areas.
• Conservers are of the opinion that conserving the macroflora
and fauna also implies conservation of lichen diversity- (But
lichens demand some special conservation strategies)
• 5% of the total Indian land area has been surveyed for lichens
by qualitative method.

20. REFERENCES
• “A hand book of lichen” - D.D. Awasthi
• www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in
• “Environmental Information System (ENVIS)”-
Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate
Change (Govt. of India)
• “Conservation Biology of Lichenised Fungi”-
Christopher Scheidegger, Patricia Anne Wolseley
& Goran Thor