Do Different Teams Produce Different Results in Long-Term Lichen Biomonitoring?

Giorgio Brunialti,Cristina Malegori,Paola Malaspina,Luisa Frati,Paolo Giordani

doi:10.3390/d11030043

Giorgio Brunialti, Cristina Malegori + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/d11030043

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Journal: Diversity	Publication Date: Mar 19, 2019
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Siena, University of Genoa

Abstract

Lichen biomonitoring programs focus on temporal variations in epiphytic lichen communities in relation to the effects of atmospheric pollution. As repeated surveys are planned at medium to long term intervals, the alternation of different operators is often possible. This involves the need to consider the effect of non-sampling errors (e.g., observer errors). Here we relate the trends of lichen communities in repeated surveys with the contribution of different teams of specialists involved in sampling. For this reason, lichen diversity data collected in Italy within several ongoing biomonitoring programs have been considered. The variations of components of gamma diversity between the surveys have been related to the composition of the teams of operators. As a major result, the composition of the teams significantly affected data comparability: Similarity (S), Species Replacement (R), and Richness Difference (D) showed significant differences between “same” and “partially” versus “different” teams, with characteristics trends over time. The results suggest a more careful interpretation of temporal variations in biomonitoring studies.

Highlights

Given their strict dependence on the atmosphere for water and mineral supply [1], lichens are extremely sensitive to substances that alter the atmospheric composition
The Lichen Diversity Value (LDV) grounds on the assessment of any change in the frequency and abundance of all epiphytic lichen species [3,4,5]. Though it was originally developed for investigating the effects of phytotoxic gases, such as SO2 and NOx [5,6,7,8], methods based on the assessment of lichen diversity have been extensively applied for detecting the sustainability of forest management [9,10,11,12,13], estimating the impact of disturbances related to land use change [14,15,16], and monitoring local- and large-scale effects of climate change [17,18,19,20,21]
We aimed to study the temporal variations of lichen diversity between repeated investigations in relation to the team composition, distinguishing between surveys carried out by the same or by different teams

Summary

Introduction

Given their strict dependence on the atmosphere for water and mineral supply [1], lichens are extremely sensitive to substances that alter the atmospheric composition. Their occurrence is modulated by pollution levels, justifying their wide use as bioindicators of air pollution [2]. As lichens are slow-growing organisms, they can be used as long-term biomonitors and the potential trends of the biological effects caused by environmental changes can be monitored by repeated measures over time [22,23]

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