{"id":10706,"date":"2019-03-15T14:30:59","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T18:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=10706"},"modified":"2020-03-17T09:28:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-17T13:28:37","slug":"hiding-in-plain-sight","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/previous-issues\/2019-2\/spring-2019\/hiding-in-plain-sight\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiding in Plain Sight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Along the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain, northeastern North Carolina stands out as a hotspot for lichen biodiversity.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

The black tendrils on this foliose lichen, Parmotrema perforatum<\/em>, are cilia, and are thought to function as dew catchers. It\u2019s possible that they also help the lichen latch onto a substrate if it breaks off, lichenologist James Lendemer says. Photo by Vitaly Charny\/CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Julie Leibach<\/h2>\n

On a crisp, sunny morning in December, two rubber-booted figures are slogging their way through swampland north of Creswell, Washington County. One clasps a blue plastic ruler while the other scribbles on a makeshift notepad fashioned from a cardboard peppermint patty box.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re investigating the trunks of certain trees, looking for particular patches of lichen \u2014 oft-overlooked organisms that are more like mini-ecosystems, teeming with life.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, so which ones are we missing here?\u201d asks Jessica Allen, carrying the ruler.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwelve is gone,\u201d replies her colleague, James Lendemer, referring to a spot on a red maple where a lichen apparently should have been.<\/p>\n

Allen and Lendemer are lichenologists at Eastern Washington University and the New York Botanical Garden, respectively. They\u2019re here today, calf-deep in murky water, to check on the progress of a pilot study they began in late 2017.\u00a0 Their aim is to see how lichens are surviving after being removed from one location in the swamp, called Bull Neck, and transplanted onto trees at this site, about two miles away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going for quantity, and we were going for diversity,\u201d Allen says. All told, the duo transplanted more than 400 samples, representing about 100 lichen species \u2014 the most diverse lichen transplantation to date, she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Lichenologists James Lendemer, left, and Jessica Allen are conducting a pilot study to see how well N.C. coastal plain lichens fare after being transplanted to new surroundings. Photo by Julie Leibach.<\/p><\/div>\n

The whole process took three days. Using wood chisels and a hammer, Allen and Lendemer extracted swatches of lichen-laden bark from select trees and placed them into pillowcases. Then they toted the samples down a dirt road to the new location. Using a staple gun or silicon sealant, they stuck the lichens onto trees in orderly columns. In some cases, the trees were the same species as those that the lichens had originally grown on. Other times, the team selected new species.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur question was, will [the lichens] live? And then, will they grow off of these bark fragments onto the tree?\u201d Allen explains. A transplant that creeps onto its new surface signifies that the species might be able to survive in that environment.<\/p>\n

Allen and Lendemer are interested in transplantation as a potential method of N.C. lichen conservation in the face of rising seas. As it turns out, areas in and near North Carolina\u2019s Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula host the core ranges of many Mid-Atlantic coastal plain lichen species. Helping these organisms migrate inland could be one way to rescue them from habitat eventually lost to saltwater inundation, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

Indeed, there\u2019s growing evidence that the sea is rising faster north of Cape Hatteras than it is to the south, according to a 2015 report prepared by the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission\u2019s Science Panel.<\/p>\n

As Allen puts it, \u201cif you really needed to rescue hundreds of species \u2014 hundreds of individuals \u2014 could you do that? What success rate could you expect?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lichen 101<\/h3>\n

To fully appreciate these unassuming organisms, a little lichenology is useful.<\/p>\n

While lichens might bring to mind primitive plants like mosses, they aren\u2019t plants at all. At its very essence, a lichen consists of a fungus coexisting symbiotically with algae or photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria \u2014 and sometimes with both. The resultant organism looks \u201ccompletely different from the two constituent parts,\u201d Lendemer says.<\/p>\n

The fungus benefits from the union by absorbing sugars produced by the algae or cyanobacteria through photosynthesis. In turn, the fungus provides shelter from extreme conditions, such as drought and intense sunlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have a lot to teach us about how different organisms can live in close association,\u201d says Scott LaGreca, the collections manager of lichens at the Duke University Herbarium. Duke researchers are exploring how lichen symbionts communicate with each other.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Top: Jessica Allen and James Lendemer call this crustose lichen \u201cAmerican sunrise,\u201d for its orange fruiting bodies, or sexual structures. Found in the hotspot, its species name is Brigantiaea leucoxantha<\/em>. Photo by Jessica Allen. Bottom: The fruticose lichen Usnea strigosa<\/em> is susceptible to air pollution and won\u2019t thrive in city environments. It grows on the canopy branches of trees, and you might spy it on fallen branches along trails. Photo by Jason Hollinger<\/a>\/CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Lichens are classified by their primary fungal component. That fungus largely influences the form a given lichen takes, which, generally speaking, ranges from flat and leafy (foliose), to shrubby (fruticose), to crusty (crustose).<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s much more to lichens than their main characters. They\u2019re small worlds unto themselves, brimming with tiny organisms such as mites, nematodes, tardigrades \u2014 also known as water bears \u2014 and plenty more fungi and bacteria, Allen explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a community of people living in a co-op,\u201d Lendemer says.<\/p>\n

What roles those other dwellers play in the lichen community is an active field of study. For instance, work led by researchers in Austria suggests that bacteria contained within a species known as the lung lichen could help it absorb nutrients and resist pathogens, among other functions.<\/p>\n

Unlike plants, lichens have no roots. They instead absorb various essential nutrients and moisture from their surroundings, directly through their outer layer, called the cortex.<\/p>\n

Nor do lichens sport a protective waxy coating. As a result, they can\u2019t keep airborne pollutants out of their tissues, and most species are sensitive to air pollution. \u201cLichens are really useful as environmental indicators,\u201d LaGreca says.<\/p>\n

Lichens perform ecosystem services as well. For instance, \u201cthey\u2019re one of the most important natural fertilizers of forests,\u201d Allen says. \u201cLichens with cyanobacteria contribute kilograms of nitrogen to those systems.\u201d They also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to photosynthesize, producing oxygen in the process.<\/p>\n

All lichens need a substrate to grow on, and some are not picky about it, Allen says. While sampling in Maryland, for example, \u201cwe found an entire couch somebody had dumped into a swamp, and it was 100 percent covered in lichen,\u201d she recalls. \u201cIt was absolutely incredible. We collected like 10 species off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unique lichen lifestyle has enabled these organisms to adapt to myriad niches. In fact, Allen says, \u201clichen occur in every single terrestrial habitat on the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Coastal Gem<\/h3>\n

North America\u2019s \u201ccrown jewel\u201d of lichens is the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Lendemer says. But as it turns out, the Albemarle- Pamlico peninsula and nearby areas offer their own lichen trove.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Allen, Lendemer and colleagues began inventorying lichen along the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain, stretching from New Jersey into Georgia. During the project, it became clear that North Carolina harbored much higher levels of lichen diversity than expected, concentrated in forested wetlands along the Alligator River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sheer number of individuals is fantastic. Trees just coated in lichens, and [lichens] falling out of the trees and on the ground everywhere. It\u2019s wonderful,\u201d Allen sighs rhapsodically.<\/p>\n

Allen and Lendemer first characterized this bevy of lichen in the journal BioScience <\/em>in 2014. Two years and more sampling later, Lendemer and colleagues published an extensive review of the hotspot, which essentially includes the N.C. counties of Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington, along with a portion of Camden.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Top: A spider nestles inconspicuously next to the foliose lichen Punctelia rudecta<\/em> and on top of a crustose species in the genus Pertusaria<\/em>, both found in the hotspot. Photo by Jessica Allen. Bottom: The foliose lichen Sticta deyana<\/em> is nearly endemic to mature inland swamp forests of the hotspot. Otherwise, it\u2019s known from a single mature hardwood forest in Alabama. Photo by Jason Hollinger.<\/p><\/div>\n

Of approximately 5,000 samples collected from about 50 sites in the region, the richest biodiversity occurred in low-lying swamp forests, followed by maritime forests, the researchers reported in the journal Castanea<\/em>. In total, the samples represented more than 380 taxa \u2014 several of which were new to science. The overwhelming majority were crustose lichens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis place hosts some of the last large populations of species that we either now find nowhere else, or [that] are now extremely rare other places when they were once more widespread in the past,\u201d Lendemer says.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of the samples were represented by only one specimen, suggesting that many species are rare even to the hotspot.<\/p>\n

Two species appeared to be endemic to the area, including Albemarlea pamlicoensis<\/em>, collected from Bull Neck Swamp, which is managed by NC State University\u2019s College of Natural Resources. To the naked eye, the species appears as inconspicuously small, reddish-brown dots. But \u201cit\u2019s very distinctive microscopically,\u201d Lendemer assures.<\/p>\n

Uncoincidentally, the hotspot encompasses the largest remaining contiguous protected natural areas in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain from southern New Jersey to southern South Carolina, according to the researchers. Alligator National Wildlife Refuge and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge make up the bulk of this haven.<\/p>\n

In those wetlands unmarred by development or agriculture, \u201cyou actually see mature forest,\u201d Lendemer says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a landscape that exists nowhere else. It\u2019s totally unique. It\u2019s like vast, endless, flat swamps. I mean, for lack of a better way of describing it, they\u2019re beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

And lichen like pristine habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just exactly the sort of place you\u2019d expect to find high diversity \u2014 long ecological continuity, places that haven\u2019t been disturbed, and places that have relatively clean air,\u201d says Rebecca Yahr, a lichenologist at the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, who has collected lichen along North Carolina\u2019s coastal plain.<\/p>\n

The extensive swamp habitats likely also provide coastal plain lichens with an abundance of \u201cmicrohabitats\u201d \u2014 that is, tiny ecological niches \u2014 in which to thrive. For instance, the topography of tree bark, wind shear, humidity and shadiness are all factors that can influence which lichens settle where.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re the size of a quarter, that stuff\u2019s huge,\u201d says Yahr, who was not part of the hotspot research. \u201cAll of those little, tiny microhabitats [are] where the diversity is generated.\u201d<\/p>\n

But another factor also likely plays into the lichen variety observed in the coastal plain. Cape Hatteras marks the dividing line between two biogeographic regions.<\/p>\n

In other words, \u201cwe\u2019re at the southern extent of the northern species range, and at the northern extent of the southern species range,\u201d explains Terri Kirby Hathaway, a marine education specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant. For instance, along the N.C. coast you can find both spiny lobster \u2014 a tropical species \u2014 and Maine lobster, as well as northern and southern bayberry.<\/p>\n

Where lichen territory is concerned, Allen supports the idea of converging distributions. \u201cThey really meet the edges of their ranges right there in this particular region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs of Hope<\/h3>\n

A look at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\u2019s Sea Level Rise Viewer, which draws on data from NOAA tide gauges, suggests that the sea could rise around Duck, in Dare County, by as much as 3.5 feet by 2050.<\/p>\n

Already forests in the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula are succumbing to saltwater intrusion, and Allen and Lendemer worry about the future of North Carolina\u2019s coastal lichens. For many species, this hotspot is a last bastion.<\/p>\n

As a conservation measure, transplanting lichen must be strategic. \u201cIf you move them into a place where the habitat is markedly different, then they\u2019ll suffer. If you move them into a place where there\u2019s terrible air pollution, then they die,\u201d Yahr says. Identifying suitable new habitat and managing it properly is crucial, she says.<\/p>\n

Allen agrees. \u201cReally, what we need to be doing now is preparing, so like planting and preserving land inland so the forest can start to mature somewhat so these species can move,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"

James Lendemer was excited to see that a transplant of the foliose lichen Lobaria ravenelii<\/em> \u2014 visible here as darker green \u2014 had creeped onto its substrate. Photo by Julie Leibach.<\/p><\/div>\n

Back in Bull Neck Swamp, Lendemer is getting anxious to see if a transplant of a relatively rare cyanobacterial lichen removed from an evergreen tree has established on a deciduous red maple.<\/p>\n

Known by the rather unappealing common name Ravenel\u2019s lung lichen (Lobaria<\/em> ravenelii<\/em>), \u201cit\u2019s one of the prettiest lichens around,\u201d Allen attests.<\/p>\n

Examining the tree, Lendemer is at first crestfallen. A large smear of silicon sealant suggests that the transplant has bit the dust, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough, look!\u201d Lendemer suddenly exclaims.<\/p>\n

Upon closer inspection, it\u2019s apparent that the dark green, leafy lichen isn\u2019t entirely gone. In fact, a portion has migrated onto the maple bark.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it attached!\u201d Allen replies. \u201cAnd it grew more!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really did grow onto the substrate,\u201d Lendemer says. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new growth is a little ray of hope for the researchers, who anticipate that their project will take another year or two to complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe transplanted common species and rare species,\u201d Lendemer says. \u201cAnd so, when the rare ones are actually growing onto the substrate, that\u2019s really promising for us. Okay, maybe not everything is going to work, but maybe if we have to focus in on the rare species, this method might work for\u00a0them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The Nature Trail at Pine Island Sanctuary<\/h2>\n
\"\"

Live oak trees thrive at Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary. Photo by Julie Leibach.<\/p><\/div>\n

Want to see coastal N.C. lichen but don\u2019t care to tromp through a swamp?<\/p>\n

Try the Nature Trail at Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary in the Outer Banks. The public path is 2.5 miles one way, and courses between Duck and Corolla. In terms of habitat, \u201cit\u2019s primarily maritime forest or maritime shrub\u201d dominated by live oak, says Robbie Fearn, sanctuary director and a former partner on a Community Collaborative Research Grant project, supported by North Carolina Sea Grant in partnership with NC State\u2019s William R. Kenan Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science.<\/p>\n

Walking along Audubon\u2019s nature trail, \u201cyou see these sort of mappy patches all over the limbs of the live oaks,\u201d Fearn says, while the limb tips appear fuzzy with other lichen species.<\/p>\n

Lichenologist James Lendemer of the New York Botanical Garden has surveyed Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary as part of a larger lichen inventory. \u201cIt\u2019s a really nice typical assemblage of the lichens you would see in a maritime forest on the Outer Banks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Fearn\u2019s liking for lichen stems from hiking trips he took as a teen through the Appalachians, where lichens coated mountain-top balds like abstract paintings. \u201cTo me,\u201d he says, a lichen \u201cis just like this fascinating little world of wonder that we\u2019ll walk past as if it was nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pine<\/em> Island<\/em> Audubon<\/em> Sanctuary<\/em> is generally closed to the public, but the trail is open to everyone from dawn to dusk, 365 days a year. Park at the Pine Island Racquet and Fitness Center on N.C. 12 for easiest access. Learn more at <\/em>pineisland.audubon.org\/visit\/landing\/nature-trail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was published in the Spring 2019 issue<\/a> of Coastwatch. For reprint requests, click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Along the Mid-Atlantic coastal plain, northeastern North Carolina stands out as a hotspot for lichen biodiversity. By Julie Leibach On a crisp, sunny morning in December, two rubber-booted figures are slogging their way through swampland…<\/p>\n

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