Inventory of lichenised and lichenicolous fungi of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard

Abstract

Nordaustlandet is the northernmost and one of the most inaccessible regions of Svalbard. The lichens of the Nordaustlandet were studied most actively from the mid-nineteenth century to the 40 s of the twentieth century. It was during this period that significant collections of lichens were collected, which still form the basis for some taxonomic studies. Thanks to large-scale research conducted by the Avrorin Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Institute of the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences for 3 years (2010–2012), we were able to make a significant contribution to the knowledge of Nordaustlandet lichens. The study of the lichen biota of Murchisonfjorden prompted us to summarise all the information about the lichens and lichenophilous fungi of Nordaustlandet, as well as to evaluate the degree of detection of the lichen flora. The checklist includes 477 lichen species, 2 subspecies and 22 species and one subspecies of lichenicolous fungi, of which Calogaya bryochrysion, Diplotomma lutosum, Flavoplaca flavocitrina, Lecanora intumescens and Zwackhiomyces coepulonus are reported for the first time for the Svalbard archipelago and another 40 species—for Nordaustlandet. The richest in terms of the number of species is Gustav V Land (415 species and two subspecies of lichens and 18 species and one subspecies of lichenicolous fungi). An assessment of lichen biota diversity using an integrated approach based on Hill numbers showed that the data cover a maximum of 80.93% of the total number of lichen species in the study area.