Alpine Lichens on Wheeler Peak: Revisiting a 1955 Survey

Written from an article by Nastassja Noell and Jason Hollinger, researchers, first published in The Midden*, Great Basin National Park, Vol. 15, No. 1, Summer 2015.*

A 60-year-old baseline

In 1955, lichenologist Henry Imshaug climbed Wheeler Peak to list its alpine lichens, part of a study of 92 alpine areas across western North America. In the autumn before the article appeared (summer 2015), the authors began revisiting his sites to learn:

• whether alpine lichens have responded to climate change over the past 60 years;
• and if so, how lichens could monitor climate change in the alpine.

Canaries in the coal mine

Lichens are classic early warnings: when sensitive species appear or vanish, the environment is shifting. The U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and agencies worldwide use lichen indices to judge air quality, forest health and rangeland health. New research suggests they may also track regional climate change.

Why the alpine: high peaks are relatively free of direct human impact, so changes there are easier to pin on climate.

The plan

Over the next few years, the authors plan to:

• revisit all 92 of Imshaug's baseline inventories;
• go through volumes of his unidentified crustose lichens;
• finish much of his unpublished work.

What Wheeler Peak showed

• Plants vs. lichens: the GLORIA inventory found 15 vascular plant species on the summit; the authors' preliminary survey found over 56 lichen species — nearly 1 to 4.
• Elsewhere: even in the humid alpine of the Northern Cascades the ratio is 1 to 3; research suggests lichens dominate the biodiversity of most alpine habitats in western North America.
• New arrivals: two macrolichens, Pseudephebe minuscula and Umbilicaria krascheninnikovii, grow there now but weren't found 60 years ago.
• Crowded rock: five species — Acarospora stapfiana, Caloplaca trachyphylla, Lecanora novomexicana, Candelariella rosulans and Umbilicaria virginis — can share a patch the size of a notecard.

Why lichens get left out

Most alpine researchers don't record lichens: they're hard to identify, there are few local alpine inventories, and there's no simple monitoring method. This study aims to close that gap — and Wheeler Peak suggests it's well worth it.

Sources

Based on "Alpine Lichens and Climate Change on Wheeler Peak," by Nastassja Noell and Jason Hollinger, The Midden — Great Basin National Park, Vol. 15, No. 1, Summer 2015, published by the National Park Service and in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words. The authors' photographs are not reproduced. The source says "this past autumn" in a 2015 issue; "tombs" is read as "tomes."