Lichens in the Urban Environment within South-East of Western Siberia, Russia

Abstract

Lichen species diversity and trend of their distribution were studied in two big cities and fi ve towns in south-east of Western Siberia. In total of 348 species from 46 families and 98 genera were found in all studied urban and suburban areas. All local checklists are characterized by high degree of the lichen species similarity between each other and smaller lists are included in bigger ones on to 64-100%. Epiphytic lichens were the largest group in all studied areas and almost half of them were occupied two and more substrates. Crustose life-form and mesophytes prevailed everywhere. Share of sensitive lichens exceeded percent of tolerant ones in big cities and was lower than tolerant ones in smaller towns. The sixteen species were the most tolerant, commonly present everywhere and have been recognized as the key species for urban lichen synusiae within south-east of Western Siberia. Five zones have been determined with IP-mapping (mapping on the base of index of air pollution tolerance) in studied areas: IP=3-5 is a “normal zone”, IP=5-7 is a “moderate exposure zone”, IP=7-9 is a “mixed zone”, IP=9-10 is a “struggle zone”, and fi nally – lichen-free zone. The most studied urban areas had got quite extensive lichen-free zone (up to 35% of their areas).

Keywords

• lichens
• sinusiae
• IP-mapping
• Western Siberia