Abstract
The Polylepis australis forests in Central Argentina support a great biodiversity in a relative small area. As a result of this study focusing on the diversity and ecology of the lichen communities of these forests, we present five new species for South America: Rinodina ficta, R. malcolmii, R. obscura, Usnea glabrata, Tetramelas triphragmioides and eight taxa new for Argentina: Calicium abietinum, Erioderma leylandii subsp. leylandii, Leptogium microstictum, Phaeophyscia endococcinodes, Rinodina dolichospora, R. intermedia, Usnea cirrosa and U. flavocardia. Unidentified Usnea species, similar to U. silesiaca, were also characterized and discussed.
Highlights
Forest and shrubland patches with canopies dominated by ~28 species of the genus Polylepis occupy the uppermost forested slopes of the high mountains of tropical and subtropical South America (Fjeldså & Kessler 2004; Renison et al 2018; Segovia et al 2018)
As a result of their isolation and a relatively stable climate throughout the Pleistocene, many Polylepis forests are inhabited by species of birds, rodents, plants and fungi with high levels of endemisms (Tarifa & Yensen 2001; Calvelo & Liberatore 2002; Fjeldsa 2002; Bellis et al 2009; Robledo & Renison 2010; Sylvester et al 2017; Ames-Martínez et al 2019; Quispe-Melgar et al 2020)
One in the context of edge effects in two Polylepis forest patches in the Andes of Colombia (Pulido Herrera & Ramos Montaño 2016) and a second regarding the effects of fires in the mountains of Central Argentina (Perazzo & Rodriguez 2019)
Summary
Forest and shrubland patches with canopies dominated by ~28 species of the genus Polylepis occupy the uppermost forested slopes of the high mountains of tropical and subtropical South America (Fjeldså & Kessler 2004; Renison et al 2018; Segovia et al 2018) These Polylepis forests exhibit huge environmental differences with a latitudinal distribution of 4500 km from Venezuela to Central Argentina, elevation ranges from 900 to 5000 m above sea level and includes the world record for the highest elevation displaying tree growth, and a large range of precipitations from 100 to 3000 mm (Harden et al 2013; Cuyckens et al 2016; Renison et al 2018). Given the island nature of mountain highlands and the diversity of habitat types for Polylepis forests from arid regions to wet cloud forests, the lichen communities of the high mountain Polylepis forests of South America are largely unexplored and probably hide a wealth of new species to science
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