New and noteworthy lichens from the Western Italian Alps

Abstract

Western Italian Alps (namely Piedmont and the Aosta Valley) are among the lichenologically best known regions of Italy with c.1200 species listed. However, despite the long temporal continuity of lichen studies, information is still geographically uneven and data on the occurrence and distribution of many species are missing. An opportunity to fill this gap is currently provided by ecological and applied studies that assess the response of lichen communities to environmental factors in terms of species richness and composition. This study reports species that are new or interesting records for the western Italian Alps or noteworthy mainly because of their conservation status provided by ecological and applied studies in Aosta Valley and Piedmont and by some recent floristic surveys. A list of 51 records referring to 47 species is reported and discussed; 20 species are new to the Aosta Valley, 17 are new to Piedmont and 11 species are reported for the first time in the Western Italian Alps, being new for both regions. More than 25% of the records derive from stonework biodeterioration studies providing noteworthy data due to substrata analysed. About 35% of records derive from both air pollution monitoring studies and research on lichen conservation in relation to forest management. Biomonitoring studies are based on robust sampling design that allows data to be compared across regions and time series, improving the information associated with floristic data. Research on epiphytic lichens in Italian forests, rapidly increasing in Italy in the last years, has contributed significant advances in lichen floristics in Italy and in modelling environmental factors that are relevant for lichen ecology and conservation.