IMIS

Lichens are the dominant macrophytes of terrestrial Antarctica and, as such, play a fundamental part of the ice-free terrestrial ecosystem. Many distinct ice-free terrestrial habitats in the Antarctic are not represented in the current network of Antarctic protected areas. However, it is difficult to identify appropriate areas for conservation because comprehensive data on distributional patterns of Antarctic flora are not available, and existing data for most Antarctic lichen species are not compiled. Consequently, cost-effective survey methods and surrogates for the prediction of species richness are needed to accelerate assessments of local biodiversity and help select areas for conservation. A combination of a photographic “citizen scientist” approach for the collection of data, and the use of parataxonomic unit (PU) richness as a surrogate for species richness, might be a possible solution to effectively collect preliminary information and rapidly build databases on species diversity.