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Home pageNewsPublicationsDr. P. Czortek and Prof. B. Jaroszewicz co-authored of the first comprehensive work on functional ecology of lichens in the primeval forest

Dr. P. Czortek and Prof. B. Jaroszewicz co-authored of the first comprehensive work on functional ecology of lichens in the primeval forest

Together with lichenologists from Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce and University of Gdańsk, we have made an attempt to identify the ecological mechanisms shaping the patterns of co-occurrence of 313 lichen species in the Białowieza Forest, taking into account 19 functional traits and their distribution in 6 forest communities, on 14 tree species and on 10 different substrates. We demonstrated that in sub-continental oak-hornbeam and ash-alder forests the most important mechanism shaping the species composition of lichens was niche differentiation, where ash and hornbeam (and within them bark and branches of living and dead trees) were identified as phytophytes with the greatest functional diversity of lichens. In coniferous forest communities, the main mechanism shaping co-occurrence of lichens was habitat filtering, expressed in low values of functional richness and functional dispersion, indicating lower diversity of niches realized by lichens and lower diversity of specific microhabitats as compared to deciduous forests.

More details and work under the link:

https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1bRVn1L~GwOHRW