Volume 21 of the series "Susswasserflora/Freshwater Flora of
Central Europe" describes the aquatic fungi. The present Part 21/1
deals with freshwater lichens (symbiotic associations of a fungus
with a photosynthetic partner, usually green algae or
cyanobacteria), which can be found in most running waterbodies with
clean water and stable bedrocks, but some species are also
characteristic for moderately polluted rivers and lake margins. The
freshwater lichen flora has a huge potential for bioindication of
silting, bedrock stability, constancy of inundation and
acidification. Many species are in need for conservation efforts,
but due to the missing of appropiate tools which facilitate the
determination of these organisms, they have only rarely been part
of inventories of freshwater bioma so far. Many freshwater lichens
are representatives of genera with many species, which have been
considered as taxonomically highly problematic.
Intensive research efforts during the last decades have
increased the knowledge on the species circumscriptions in most of
these critical genera, but a modern synopsis of these new
developments, including the results of molecular studies was still
missing for Central Europe. With less than 100 species, freshwater
lichens are a rather small but systematically highly heterogenous
group of specialized fungi which konvergently adopted an amphibious
lifestyle. They are representatives of several non related orders
of Ascomycota. The heterogeneous origin of freshwater lichens made
their determination even more difficult, due to the fact that the
environmentalist had to use keys which include all species of a
given area. These are not only the rather few taxa relevant for
freshwater inventories but also a plentidud of terrestrial and
epiphytic taxa which never will be met in freshwater habitats. Keys
exclusively dedicated to the freshwater representatives were
available only for selected genera and they are scattered over
several publications with little distribution outside of the
community of specialized lichenologists. A comprehensive flora of
Central European freshwater lichens was missing completely.
This book is intended to fill that gap and to aid both the
lichenologists as well as the non specialized environmentalist on
his way to efficient and correct identification of the freshwater
lichen flora of Central Europe. Detailed descriptions for all
better known taxa of amphibious lichens as well as fotographs for
most of the species are given and the keys include spezialized
freshwater species as well as a selection of taxa with a wide
ecological amplitude which are frequently found at the borders of
streams and lakes.
In preparation is Part 21/2 covering the real fungi und fungi
related organism."
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