On a lichen collection from the summit of Glittertinden (Norway, Oppland / Innlandet) – base line data for a high mountain top

Abstract

A set of 44 taxa of lichenized fungi and 5 species of lichenicolous fungi was gathered in 1984 in the summit area of the mountain Glittertinden, the second highest mountain in Scandinavia. The sampled species include several high alpine taxa known as members of well-established alpine lichen communities but only few pioneer species indicating that the investigated rocks had already been ice-free for a long time. The local flora is compared to that reported from Scandinavia’s highest mountain, Galdhøpiggen, by the late Gunnar Degelius in the 1940s. With the continuing melting of the local ice cap on the summit of Glittertinden, biota will face profoundly changed environmental conditions with much additional substrate ready to be colonized in the near future.

Keywords

• biodiversity
• climate change
• global warming
• high-alpine/nival vegetation
• belt
• jotunheimen
• lichenized fungi
• lichenicolous fungi
• scandinavia