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In this project, we propose (1) to genotype mycobionts and photobionts from six antarctic, arctic and temperate populations, (2) to measure photosynthetic parameters for these genotyped lichens and their isolated photobionts, and (3) to transplant temperate individuals to arctic populations and vice versa in a common garden design to measure changes in dry weight over three years. The ultimate goal is to investigate whether differential association with ecotypically differentiated photobionts allows widely distributed lichen fungi to inhabit climatically hostile polar regions. The results of our study will strongly influence our ability to predict the impact of global climate change on polar terrestrial ecosystems. This project will be part of the research program of the “Biodiversity and Climate Research Center” (BiK-F) in Frankfurt (URL: http://www.senckenberg.de/bik-f/).
Experimental set-up
For the common garden experiment a transplantation site in Finse will be set up. This transplantation will look as follows:
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First of all every lichen individual will be fixed in a fine-meshed plastic filter. This filter will catch lichen peaces that eventually break up and fall down, so the Norwegian flora will not be contaminated. The second form of protection are special lichen cages. One cage has a size of 60 x 55 x 40 cm and it is build out of larch wood and laminated metal grid with a mesh size of 1,2cm x 1,2 cm. The plastic filters with the lichens will be transplanted below these protection cages. On the one hand this will protect the lichens from a disturbance by animals, on the other hand no lichen fragments can be distributed fot example via trampling. Cetraria aculeatais also an indigenous species to Finse and the individuals growing there are very well adapted to the local climate. The haplotypes introduced by us will supposedly be outcompetitioned by the local haplotypes, so there will be no danger for the Norwegian lichen flora at all.
Altogether 4 protection cages will be installed around Finse Research station, that means a transplantation of about 80 lichen thalli. The transplantation is planned to be finished in 2012.