Monitoring physiological and chemical response of lichen in free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) station

Abstract

The elevation of CO2 will bring forth several effects on the plant’s growth especially the physiological traits and chemical responses. However, there is lacking knowledge on how the elevation on CO2 will affect lichen physiology and chemical response. Therefore, this study aims to study the physiological changes in lichen in FACE Station and to analyze the chemical profile changes of lichen in FACE Station. This study has been conducted in FACE Station at Jengka, Pahang. A total of 20 sampling trees have been selected and epiphytic lichen have been collected from the selected trees. In this study, there are three (3) sampling and experimental approaches;’) Sample collection from control and FACE station; 2) Analyzing sample in the laboratory (physiological and chemical response) and 3) statistical analysis (Mann-Whitney U test) will be used for testing the relationship between parameters and sampling areas. This study has found only three species of foliicolous lichen from both stations namely a) Byssoloma subdiscordans, b) Eugeniella micrommata and c) Sporopodium flavescens. For the photosynthetic cell efficiency test, the FV/FM ratio shows a significant difference for both stations where all of the three species from FACE Station have lower cell efficiency compare to the Control Station. At the other hand, for the membrane cell integrity analysis, no significant changes were found for the three species from both stations. In term of chemical response, there is no any significant difference on the secondary metabolite from any sample taken from both stations. This study urges that there is slight difference in term of lichen physiology from Face Station and Control Station. This proves that lichen responded towards CO2 elevation and effect their growth simultaneously. In bigger perspective, climate change and global warming will be affecting lichen diversity and growth.