The effect of land use on taxonomical and functional diversity of lichens in an agricultural landscape

The objective of this work was to determine the effect of land use on lichen richness and their functional groups in agricultural land. A significant overall effect of land use on the number of species was found. In general, there was a marked dissimilarity with regard to species richness of forest versus non-forest sites. An analysis of some ecological requirements of lichens showed the most apparent differences concerning tolerance to nutrients and acidity value of particular species. Richness of species capable of producing soredia, isidia and reproducing via fragmentation was higher in coniferous forest compared to non-forest habitats (including wooded patches). Functional traits were a more sensitive and more informative index of lichen response to land use intensity compared to species richness.