{"id":930,"date":"2022-01-13T21:17:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T21:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=930"},"modified":"2022-01-13T21:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T21:17:13","slug":"where-the-lichens-go","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/where-the-lichens-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Where the Lichens Go"},"content":{"rendered":"
A new, NSF-supported project aims to unravel one of nature\u2019s enduring mysteries.<\/span><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

F<\/span>or decades, <\/span>biologists have grappled with questions involving nature\u2019s way of distributing plants and animals: Why, in short, are some species found all over, while others barely budge from their ancestral homes?<\/p>\n

The search for solutions is more complicated than one might think, particularly for the seldom-studied smaller species that make up the bulk of life on Earth. A new grant from the National Science Foundation will help EWU\u2019s Jessica Allen, an assistant professor of biology, and her long-time research collaborator James Lendemer, a curator at The New York Botanical Garden, to provide answers \u2014 at least for lichens, one of the more ubiquitous, enigmatic and consequential of these smaller species.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, NSF awarded the two scientists more than $625,000 each to pursue their Central Appalachian Lichen Project, a wide-ranging investigation into how various factors, both natural and man-made, may have influenced the dispersal of various lichen species across the central Appalachian region, a beautiful but endangered biodiversity hotspot.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jessica Allen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project\u2019s daunting first step, says Allen, involves field work to fix the locations and identities of as many of the multitudinous local lichens\u2014 those odd hybrids of fungus and algae \u2014 as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201cHaving a decent grasp on a species\u2019 prevalence and distribution is actually quite challenging,\u201d she says. \u201cEspecially with lichens, because so few people study them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the grant, student researchers, along with public volunteers who sign on to participate in what Allen has dubbed the \u201cGreat Appalachian Lichen BioBlitz,\u201d will be deployed to help meet the lichen-location challenge by photographing and sharing their collected observations on a digital platform called iNaturalist.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The core research team will then take a deeper dive into documenting lichen occurrences by collecting and identifying \u201cvoucher specimens\u201d from hundreds of sites throughout the region. <\/span>These specimens will help researchers capture detailed, in-depth site data and will also provide material for future study.<\/p>\n

Next up will be genetic analysis, data analytics and other laboratory-based procedures to leverage the field findings and bio-blitzin<\/span>g to build a comprehensive profile of the central Appalachian region\u2019s diverse lichen population. Allen and Lendemer will then chart the locations of the species identified in this profile, and merge those data with genetic findings to unravel the how\u2019s and why\u2019s of the lichens\u2019 dispersal patterns and distributions.<\/p>\n

Lichens are suitable subjects for this level of scrutiny, Allen says, in part because they are uniquely effective as barometers of environmental impacts. The project, she adds, has the potential to provide an invaluable look at how decades of resource extraction, residential and commercial development and, more recently, climate change, have affected Appalachia\u2019s ecology.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Allen’s new book, available from Yale University Press.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLichens are super sensitive indicators, compared to other groups of organisms,\u201d Allen says. \u201cThey respond to air pollution in a clear way, for example, which other groups of other organisms do not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The bigger picture, she adds, is how lichens serve to remind us that species both great and small are necessary to maintain our increasingly fragile biosphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEcosystems need biodiversity to function properly; functions which are essential to providing, say, clean air and water for us,\u201d she says. \u201cMy hope is that, long-term, we find a way as a society to live more sustainably; that we work to preserve as much biodiversity as possible right now, even those species that are on the brink. Hopefully, in the future, we\u2019ll create a little bit more amenable planet for these species, and we will be happy that we saved them when we had the chance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new, NSF-supported project aims to unravel one of nature\u2019s enduring mysteries.   For decades, biologists have grappled with questions involving nature\u2019s way of distributing plants and animals: Why, in short, are some species found all over, while others barely budge from their ancestral homes? The search for solutions is more complicated than one might…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":27,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-930","stories","type-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"featured_video":"","subheading":"","display_byline":false,"display_date_published":false,"Links":false,"Resources":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/484"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/stories\/930\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}