Abstract
AbstractThe lichen Aspicilia caesiocinerea agg. colonizing Triassic sandstone rock outcrops between 1600 and 2800 m elevation in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco has been observed to have some unusual growth strategies, including a probably unique undercutting of escarpments, which produce severe bioweathering of the substrata. Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy was applied to studies of lichen–substratal surface transects in order to identify key wavenumber spectral markers of the biogeological changes. The Raman data were combined with previously determined energy‐dispersive x‐ray spectral information on similar specimens to build up a picture of the survival strategy of the lichen in this seasonally arid environment, where temperature extremes on rock surfaces range between −20 and +60 °C and precipitation varies from rain and surface snow cover in winter to long periods of drought in summer. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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