A team of researchers with members from the U.S. and several South American countries has found that a type of lichen that grows in several parts of Central and South America consists of at least 126 species of fungi and ...
When Santa's exhausted reindeer finally set down their sleigh in the deep snow of the North Pole early Christmas morning, it's not Rudolph's radiant red nose that will help them find sustenance in the barren landscape.
Evolution
Dec 15, 2023
0
100
All plants and lichens listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act are sensitive to climate change but there are few plans in place to address this threat directly, according to a new study by Amy Casandra Wrobleski ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 26, 2023
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72
Algae are more than just the green scum that shows up on aquarium walls. The tiny plants, when teamed up with a fungus, can form a composite structure called lichen. Lichens grow everywhere, from tundras in the Arctic to ...
Ecology
Feb 15, 2022
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109
Tropical rainforests are the world's most significant source of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs). These compounds have a great influence on the concentration of oxidative substances and thus on the self-purifying ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 21, 2021
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469
An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Bayreuth, the University of Hohenheim, and the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections has discovered how different climatic conditions influence the chemical properties ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 20, 2021
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47
Natural substances are biologically active components produced by organisms. So far, they have been of interest to researchers primarily as the basis for medicines, because some natural substances have been shown to inhibit ...
Evolution
Jul 20, 2021
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180
In arid desert regions, a large proportion of the ground surface is covered by specialized organisms such as mosses and lichens that form biocrusts, which are important for the cycling of key nutrients in desert ecosystems. ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 17, 2021
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33
In northern Canada, the forest floor is carpeted with reindeer lichens. They look like a moss made of tiny gray branches, but they're stranger than that: they're composite organisms, a fungus and algae living together as ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 29, 2021
1
374
Scientists have uncovered the earliest known evidence of an insect mimicking a lichen as a survival strategy, according to new findings published today in eLife.
Archaeology
Sep 1, 2020
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1230
Lichens ( /ˈlaɪkən/, sometimes /ˈlɪtʃən/) are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus (the mycobiont) with a photosynthetic partner (the photobiont or phycobiont), usually either a green alga (commonly Trebouxia) or cyanobacterium (commonly Nostoc). The morphology, physiology and biochemistry of lichens are very different from those of the isolated fungus and alga in culture. Lichens occur in some of the most extreme environments on Earth—arctic tundra, hot deserts, rocky coasts, and toxic slag heaps. However, they are also abundant as epiphytes on leaves and branches in rain forests and temperate woodland, on bare rock, including walls and gravestones, and on exposed soil surfaces (e.g., Collema) in otherwise mesic habitats. Lichens are widespread and may be long-lived; however, many are also vulnerable to environmental disturbance, and may be useful to scientists in assessing the effects of air pollution, ozone depletion, and metal contamination. Lichens have also been used in making dyes and perfumes, as well as in traditional medicines.
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